Since 2000, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has been collecting complaints from victims of internet crime through its website, www.ic3.gov. The complaints are used build a database that the FBI, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies, can use in their investigations. IC3 analyses complaint data and refers data on specific internet crimes to local, state, federal and international law enforcement agencies for potential investigations. It also issues alerts to the public about internet crime trends.
Since its inception, IC3 has received over 5.6 million
complaints. Over the last five years, it has received an average of 440,000
complaints per year for a total loss of $13.3 billion.
IC3 recently issued its 2020 Annual Internet Crime
Report. Among its findings,
Washington State is in the top 10 states by numbers of
victims with 17,229 victims for a loss of over $88 million.
COVID-19. Scammers and
fraudsters took full advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. IC3 received over
28,500 COVID-19 complaints in 2020. Most complaints related to the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) involving grant fraud, loan
fraud, and phishing for Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Fraudsters
also targeted unemployment insurance, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
loans, and Small Business Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
Impersonation scammers have been using the pandemic as
they contact victims through social media, emails, and phone calls to gather
personal information or collect money through charades or threats.
With the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, scammers
have charged people to receive the vaccine or put them on vaccine waiting or early
access lists. Fraudulent advertisements for vaccines have shown up on social
media, email, telephone calls, and online.
Business Email Compromise (BEC).
In 2020, the IC3 received 19,369 Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Email
Account Compromise (EAC) complaints with losses of over $1.8 billion. BEC/EAC
scams target businesses and individuals who perform transfers of funds. The
scams are carried out when business email accounts are compromised through
social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to intercept or generate
unauthorized transfers of funds.
The report points out that BEC/EAC schemes have
evolved, starting out in 2013 with hacking or spoofing email accounts of chief
executive or chief financial officers, then sending fraudulent emails
requesting wire payments be sent to fraudulent accounts. In recent years, the scam
has expanded to include compromise of personal emails, compromise of vendor
emails, spoofed lawyer email accounts, requests for W-2 information, the
targeting of the real estate sector, and fraudulent requests for large amounts
of gift cards.
In 2020, there has been an increase in BEC/EAC for
identity theft and converting funds to cryptocurrency. An initial victim might
be scammed in non-BEC/EAC situations including Extortion, Tech Support, Romance
scams, etc., where a victim provides a form of ID to a scammer. Then that
information is used to establish a bank account that is used to receive stolen
BEC/EAC funds which is then transferred to a cryptocurrency account.
Tech Support Fraud. While
the pandemic caused a brief slowdown, IC3 continued to see an increase in
incidences and losses to Tech Support Fraud. In 2020, IC3 received 15,421
complaints about Tech Support Fraud with losses amounting to over $146 million,
a 171 percent increase over 2019.
Criminals may pose as support or service
representatives to claim to provide customer, security, or technical support,
offering to resolve a compromised email or bank account, a virus on a computer,
or a software license renewal. The crooks might claim to be from a computer
company, financial institution, utility company, or virtual currency exchange.
Many victims report being directed to make wire transfers to overseas accounts or
purchase large amounts of prepaid cards.
66 percent of the victims are over 60 years of age and
experience at least 84 percent of the losses (over $116 million).
For information on how to avoid Tech Support Fraud check
out this IC3 public service announcement- https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2018/PSA180328.
Ransomware. Criminals
will find a way to insert malware that encrypts a computer’s or a computer
network’s data making it unusable to the user. They then demand payment to
unlock the data, hence the name ransomware. In 2020, IC3 received 2,474
complaints about ransomware with losses of over $29.1 million.
The three major methods of inserting ransomware are,
Email
phishing- Inserting the ransomware through a link or attached file in an
email.
Remote
Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP allows people to control a computer’s resources
and data over the internet. Cyber criminals will gain access to the RDP
protocol then insert the ransomware.
Software
vulnerabilities. Cyber criminals take advantage of security weaknesses in
software or operating systems to insert their ransomware.
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA) has become concerned that ransomware is becoming a growing internet
security threat to organizations and individuals. For information on protecting
your organization and yourself from ransomware checkout this CISA link- https://www.cisa.gov/ransomware
IC3 Internet Crime Report 2020:
https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2020_IC3Report.pdf
IC3 Internet Crime Report 2020, Washington State Data:
https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2020State/StateReport.aspx#?s=54
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