The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report for 2023.

In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion. This is almost a 10% increase in complaints from 2022 and a 22% increase in losses. 

The top three crime types most frequently reported by victims were phishing/spoofing, personal data breach, and non-payment/non-delivery.
Phishing and spoofing schemes had over 298,000 complaints reported in 2023. Personal data breaches had over 55,000 complaints reported, and non-payment/non-delivery scams had 50,000 complaints.

The top three crime types reported by victims of fraud loss are investment scams, business email compromise (BEC), and tech support scams.
Investment fraud losses rose to $4.57 billion in 2023, a 38% increase from 2022. Within these numbers, crypto-investment fraud losses rose to $3.94 billion in 2023, a 53% increase from 2022. BEC complaints amounted to $2.9 billion in reported losses, and tech support scams were the third largest type of crime with over $924 million reported in losses.

Victims 30 to 49 years old were the most likely group to report losses from investment fraud, while those over 60 accounted for well over half of losses to tech support scams.

Ransomware continued to be damaging and impactful in 2023. IC3 received over 2,800 ransomware complaints and losses rose to $59.6 million, a 74% increase from last year. The critical infrastructure most reported as impacted by ransomware were health care and public health, critical manufacturing, and government facilities.

Pennsylvania was in the top 10 states by number of complaints to IC3 as well as the top 10 states by losses. In reported complaints per state, Pennsylvania was 7th overall with over 16,000 complaints. In reported losses, Pennsylvania was 6th overall, with losses of over $360.3 million.

"Combatting complex financial fraud schemes remains a top priority for the FBI. While the goal of these crimes remains the same, we continue to see fraudsters evolve in how they leverage technology to execute their scams. In short, fraudsters from anywhere in the world are increasingly leveraging digital tools to target victims at scale," said Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of FBI Philadelphia. "FBI Philadelphia encourages all victims to remain vigilant as they live their digital lives and always report suspected internet crimes to the IC3 at ic3.gov. Reporting these online crimes is invaluable in helping us remain agile in the current threat landscape by allowing us to pursue bad actors, share intelligence with our partners, and protect our community.”

The FBI continues to combat cyber threats, complex financial crimes, and navigate the evolving threat landscape. IC3 is critical to our efforts in doing so, giving the public a direct way to report these crimes to the FBI. The FBI encourages victims to report suspected internet crimes to the IC3 at ic3.gov. Reporting allows us to collect data, open and advance investigations, and identify trends and changes in the threat landscape.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center was established in May 2000 to receive complaints of online-related crimes. Since its inception, IC3 has received over eight million complaints.

The FBI recommends that the public frequently review consumer and industry alerts published by IC3.