‘It’s heartbreaking’: FBI report reveals Tennesseans lost $160M to internet scams in 2023
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed an alarming amount of money lost to internet scammers across the nation, including the Volunteer State.
According to the 2023 Internet Crime Report, Tennesseans lost $161 million to online predators. It’s a devastating trend up 40% from the $113 million lost in 2022.
Tennessee is ranked 31st for most funds lost to cybercrime in the country. A total of $12.5 billion vanished nationwide in 2023, the report stated.
Supervisory Special Agent Regis Billings with the FBI Nashville Resident Agency Cyber Squad said people ages 60 and older have a higher risk of falling victim to these hackers. He attributed that statistic to the lack of knowledge and experience with technology by the older population.
“It’s heartbreaking to go out to people who have given their life savings either to a tech support scam, a romance scam, or think that they’re rolling over their 401(k) into another investment such as cryptocurrency, only to be completely defrauded by the bad guys,” Billings said. “We’re seeing a lot of this revolve around the emerging use of technology by new users that didn’t have the opportunity to grow up with it.”
Tennessee residents reportedly lodged a total of 8,484 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year. Nationwide, in 2023, the IC3 recorded 880,418 complaints.
“If you feel like you are becoming the victim of one of these crimes, reach out to your local law enforcement partners to verify what’s going on,” Billings said.
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FBI data showed tech support scams, investment fraud, and business e-mail compromise as the top categories for losses in Tennessee.
“In a lot of the tech scams, they are using the U.S. government’s name, either the FBI or the IRS, and purporting or pretending to be the government,” Billings said. “The U.S. government will not tell you over text or the internet to give us cash in exchange for us to not prosecute you. Someone would physically show up to your house as a special agent and show you their credentials.”
Billings said most of the cybercriminals are from overseas. He explained that their goal is to improve their country’s economy through stealing U.S. dollars.
“They’re looking for additional sources of income, and the easiest way without producing anything, is just to steal it,” Billings said. “With some of the internet-based criminology using crimes that we’ve seen, it’s very easy, it’s low entry cost to be able to get into, they’re able to go around sanctions with new technologies, such as cryptocurrencies to be able to get a lot of that funding to those countries. They’re really trying to take advantage of us.”
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Billings advised enabling two-factor authentication to your online accounts as a way to keep your money and personal information more secure.
“Oftentimes, it’s a free service and they’re not utilizing it because of the inconvenience associated with it, but the security benefit just completely outweighs any inconvenience to the individual,” Billings said.
If you think you are or have fallen victim to internet crime, contact your local FBI office or file a complaint on ic3.gov.
To read the full 2023 Internet Crime Report and find resources for cybersecurity, click here.
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