Online scammers stole a record $16.6B last year, FBI says

Online scammers swindled people out of a record amount of money in 2024, according to a newly released report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). 

The IC3 said Wednesday in its "2024 Internet Crime Report" that losses from internet scams and other malicious online activity totaled $16.6 billion, up 33% from the prior year. 

People over the age of 60 accounted for the highest number of complaints (more than 147,100) and the largest amount of losses ($4.8 billion), the report said.