The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recently released its annual report.

In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion, according to a news release from the FBI.

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 more than 298,000 complaints reported in 2023. Personal data breach had more than 55,000 complaints reported and non-payment/non-delivery scams had 50,000 complaints.

The top three crime types reported by victims by fraud loss are investment scams, business email compromise 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, according to FBI officials.

Business email compromise complaints amounted to $2.9 billion in reported losses and tech support scams were the third largest type of crime with more than $924 million reported in losses.

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

Ransomware continued to be damaging and impactful in 2023.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center 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 the Internet Crime Complaint Center as well as the Top 10 states by losses.

In reported complaints per state, Pennsylvania was seventh overall with more than 16,000 complaints. In reported losses, Pennsylvania was sixth overall, with losses of more than $360.3 million.

“Combating 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,” Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of FBI Philadelphia, said.

“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.”

Those caught up in Internet crimes are encouraged to report their experience at ic3.gov to help officials collect data, track trends and catch scammers and swindlers.