As the internet grows, it’s more important than ever to be a smart and savvy web user.  Whether you use the internet for games and social media, or to conduct business, you could be at risk of becoming the next Victim of the most common internet crimes.  Take a look below at the top online crimes, according to the FBI, and learn what you can do to protect yourself. 

1. Phishing Scams 

Number of victims in 2022: 300,497 

Total victim losses: $52,089,159

Phishing scams are a common type of fraud where scammers pose as authority figures or agencies and request personal data or login information from unsuspecting users.  This can be done manually via message or by leading the user to a decoy website that looks legitimate, where they unwittingly enter their identifying information for the scammer to record. 

One of the most well-known phishing tactics is the PayPal scam, where users are sent an email that appears to be from PayPal saying their account has been compromised.  They are prompted to enter their credit card details to confirm their account, which are then just sent to the scammer to commit fraud with. 

Find out who’s really emailing you with a reverse email lookup.

2. Personal Data Breaches 

Number of victims in 2022: 58,859 

Total victim losses: $742,438,136

Personal data breaches occur when non-public, personal data or confidential information provided in confidence to a trusted third party is leaked or published without the consumer’s permission, usually due to an intrusion or security breach of the trusted third party’s systems.  

These breaches often involve multiple consumers’ non-public information being breached at the same time and can precede other crimes on this list, like credit card fraud or blackmail. 

3. Non-payment and Non-delivery 

Number of victims in 2022: 51,679 

Total victim losses: $281,770,073

Non-payment and non-delivery scams are types of fraud intended to take advantage of a buy/sell relationship between two people.  In a nonpayment scam, a buyer will promise payment up until the point at which the goods are shipped or the service has been rendered, after which the buyer will then “ghost” the supplier without ever making the payment. 

In a nondelivery scam, the seller will accept payment for goods or services and either fail to provide them or provide a different product or one of lesser quality.  A good example of this is the prom dress scam, where suppliers will photograph a high-quality gown for the product listing, but ship out a dress that looks completely different and is even unwearable. 

4. Extortion 

Number of victims in 2022: 39,416  

Total victim losses: $54,335,128

Extortion involves obtaining money or something else of value by using threats, coercion or force.  Blackmail, for example, is a form of extortion that involves threatening someone with the release of sensitive information that could negatively impact them in exchange for payment.  Robbery is another form of extortion, where one or more people are forced to give an offender money and are threatened with violence or harm if they aren’t complicit. 

5. Tech Support Scams

Number of victims in 2022: 32,538 

Total victim losses: $806,551,993

Tech support scams involve fraudsters posing as tech support or customer service representatives in order to obtain personal information, logins, debit or credit card numbers and important account data from people who are calling in for help. 

They often intercept calls coming into support centers and will pretend they work for whichever company you are trying to reach.  These scammers seem helpful and genuine but are simply playing a role until there’s a good time to ask you to reveal sensitive data. 

6. Investment Fraud

Number of victims in 2022: 30,529 

Total victim losses: $3,311,742,206

Investment fraud is a type of theft that involves the use of deception to convince people to make investments based on wrong or misrepresented information.  Pyramid and Ponzi schemes are two common investment scams that are designed to encourage good faith investors into putting their money into a venture meant to fail. 

7. Identity Theft 

Number of victims in 2022: 27,922 

Total victim losses: $189,205,793

Identity theft is a serious crime that involves using the Personal Identifying Information (PII) of someone else for the purpose of committing fraud.  Identity theft is often medical or financial in nature and can take place online or off. 

For example, someone might hack a hospital’s computer system via a security or personal data breach to steal the medical insurance information of hundreds of patients, which they can then sell for thousands of dollars on the dark web. 

8. Credit Card & Check Fraud 

Number of victims in 2022: 22,985  

Total victim losses: $264,148,905

Credit card and check fraud is a broad category of fraud that includes any unauthorized transaction using a credit card, debit card, check or ACH transfer.  Thieves can steal your credit card or checkbook and use them to pay for things in person, or obtain your information and use it to complete financial transactions online. 

9. Business Email Compromise (BEC) 

Number of victims in 2022: 21,832 

Total victim losses: $2,742,354,049

Business Email Compromise, or BEC, is a kind of online scam that uses sophisticated software to hack company email accounts and other forms of communication to make an unauthorized transfer of funds. 

An example of this is when a business manager gets an email from what looks like a vendor they normally deal with, giving them a change of address for payments.  The manager then starts to mail checks to a scammer who’s only posed as the vendor.  This can go on for some time until both the manager and the vendor understand what happened. 

10. Spoofing Scams 

Number of victims in 2022: 20,649 

Total victim losses: $107,926,252

Spoofing scams involve the falsification of legitimate contact information for the purpose of leading unsuspecting users into providing their personal data. 

For example, someone running a spoof scam might get a telephone number similar to a known debt collector and copy their greeting to a T.  Then, they contact people to demand payment, usually by threatening them with negative action to their credit score, or even wage garnishment.  And when users comply out of fear, they’re defrauded when scammers take payment for a fake debt they’ve created. 

How to Protect Yourself Against Internet Crimes 

Whether for work or play, taking steps to protect yourself when engaging with people online is of the utmost importance.  Never give your personal or financial information to anyone else online, even if they appear to be legitimate.  Don’t click on links from your email to websites that require you to enter your username and password, and be sure to update your login information frequently. 

You can also check with people search sites like Spokeo to verify if the people you’re talking to on the web are who they say they are.  For example, if someone claiming to be a business CEO is asking for your credit card information, you can use people’s search engines to find out if they gave you the name of a real person or if they work at the company they claim to.   

Sources:

• Federal Trade Commission – Those urgent emails from MetaMask and PayPal are phishing scams
• The New York Times – Check Fraud Is on the Rise. Here’s What You Can Do to Prevent It.