By Hank Russell
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently released its 2024 Internet Crime Report and found that New York is one of the top five states in the nation with the most cybercrime complaints filed with the agency and the greatest financial losses.
“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, the FBI’s operations director for criminal and cyber.
According to the agency, New York submitted the fourth-most complaints regarding Internet-related crimes with 36,468, just behind California (96,265), Texas (62,347) and Florida (52,191). In addition, the suffered the fourth-most financial losses at $904 million. California was the tops with $2.539 billion, followed by Texas and Florida with losses of $1.352 billion and $1.072 billion, respectively.
When it comes to elder fraud, New York registered 6,225 complaints last year, making them sixth in the nation. (The complainants were aged 60 years and older.) In total, the complainants were scammed out of $257,658,301 — fourth in the nation.
The latest trend is cryptocurrency fraud. The FBI is warning Americans of a sharp rise in crypto investment schemes and fraudulent schemes leveraging cryptocurrency ATMs and QR codes in order to make payments. The top four crimes involving crypto ATM transactions include extortion, impersonating tech support or a government employee and investment schemes.
In fourth place — again — was New York with 8,053 complaints lodged, with complainants losing a combined $375,087,857.
The FBI urges anyone who may have been a victim of an online scam to call their local FBI office or file a report on IC3.gov.
“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.”