Phishing, extortion, and data breaches led complaint volume, with older adults especially hit hard.
Internet-enabled crime cost victims in the United States more than $16.6 billion in 2024, a record-breaking 33 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report released by the FBI.
The data, published in the agency’s annual Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report, shows that Americans filed more than 859,000 complaints last year, with more than 256,000 reporting financial losses. The average loss per incident exceeded $19,000.
“The criminals Americans face today may look different than in years past, but they still want the same thing: to harm Americans for their own benefit,” said B. Chad Yarbrough, Criminal and Cyber Operations director at the FBI. “This brings me back to IC3’s quarter-century milestone. While the top threats facing our country have certainly shifted over the decades, protecting American citizens—whether that means your safety, your money, or your data—remains a cornerstone of the FBI’s mission.”
Phishing and spoofing scams were the most frequently reported crime types, accounting for more than 193,000 complaints. Extortion was the second most common category, with more than 86,000 cases, followed by personal data breaches, which exceeded 64,000.
Investment scams caused the highest monetary damage, resulting in more than $6.5 billion in reported losses. Business email compromise ranked second with $2.77 billion in losses, followed by tech support fraud at $1.46 billion and personal data breaches at $1.45 billion.
Cryptocurrency was a common tool in online scams, referenced in 149,000 complaints with losses topping $9.3 billion—a 66 percent increase from 2023.
Adults aged 60 and older were especially hit hard, filing nearly 150,000 complaints in 2024 and reporting $4.9 billion in losses—an increase of more than 40 percent from the prior year. The most damaging schemes targeting older Americans included investment fraud, tech support scams, and romance scams. They were also the most impacted demographic in cryptocurrency-related cases, losing more than $2.8 billion.
“Reporting is one of the first and most important steps in fighting crime so law enforcement can use this information to combat a variety of frauds and scams,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The IC3, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is only as successful as the reports it receives; that’s why it’s imperative that the public immediately report suspected cyber-enabled criminal activity to the FBI.”
By Chase Smith
