The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued its 2019 Internet Crime Report.
This year’s Internet Crime Report highlights the IC3’s efforts to monitor trending scams such as business email compromise (BEC), ransomware, elder fraud, and tech support fraud. In 2019, IC3 received a total of 467,361 complaints with reported losses exceeding $3.5 billion.
“The most prevalent crime types reported were phishing/vishing/smishing/pharming, non-payment/non-delivery, extortion, and personal data breach. The top three crime types with the highest reported losses were BEC, confidence/romance fraud, and spoofing,” said Matt Gorham, assistant director, Cyber Division, FBI in the report’s introduction.
The report noted that in 2019, the IC3 received 23,775 BEC/email account compromise (EAC) complaints, with adjusted losses of more than $1.7 billion.
“In 2019, the IC3 observed an increase in the number of BEC/EAC complaints related to the diversion of payroll funds. In this type of scheme, a company’s human resources or payroll department receives an email appearing to be from an employee requesting to update their direct deposit information for the current pay period. The new direct deposit information generally routes to a pre-paid card account,” the report stated.
It further noted that in 2019, the IC3 received 2,047 complaints identified as ransomware, with adjusted losses of more than $8.9 million.
“Ransomware is a form of malware targeting both human and technical weaknesses in an effort to make critical data and/or systems inaccessible,” the report stated. “Ransomware is delivered through various vectors, including remote desktop protocol, which allows computers to connect to each other across a network, and phishing.
“Recent iterations of this threat target specific organizations and their employees, making awareness and training a critical preventative measure,” it added.
The Coalition to Stop Real Estate Wire Fraud issued a statement following the report’s release, noting that there was a rise in mortgage closing scam monetary losses and number of victims between 2018 and 2019.
“The recently released 2019 Internet Crime Report from IC3 shows the Coalition to Stop Real Estate Wire Fraud is very much needed,” American Land Title Association CEO Diane Tomb said. “Wire fraud is one of the biggest battles the real estate industry has faced. But the coalition isn’t simply watching it happen; we’re in the fight — we’re on the frontlines. With increased statistics — 11,677 victims experienced $221 million in losses last year — there is definitely work to be done. Only a percentage of victims report their losses to IC3, so we expect to see numbers rise as we continue to encourage those in the real estate transaction to report any wire fraud activity. The number of coalition partners more than doubled between October and December 2019 as companies and organizations began to see the importance of raising awareness about mortgage closing scams.
“The title and settlement industry has improved its digital hygiene and implemented many procedures to combat this fraud,” Tomb added. “But no matter how much money we spend, criminals will continue to target consumers. This is why we must continue to educate people about how they can protect their money when purchasing a home or refinancing a mortgage.”