Illinois victims, losses rise in FBI’s new Internet Crime Report
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — The FBI released their 2023 Internet Crime Report this month, which said Illinois experienced a 6% rise in victim complaints and a 20% rise in dollar loss since 2022.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) collects internet crime data annually. This includes instances of financial fraud, business email compromise (BEC), impersonations of individuals or organizations, ransomware, and more.
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The increase in complaints and losses wasn’t only present in Illinois, but across the U.S. overall. In 2023, the country saw nearly 10% more complaints and jumped up 22% in losses, compared to the previous year.
Illinois | Victim Complaints | State Ranking |
|---|---|---|
2023 | 15,783 | 8th highest |
2022 | 14,786 | 5th highest |
Illinois | Victim Dollar Loss | State Ranking |
|---|---|---|
2023 | $335.8 million | 7th highest |
2022 | $266.7 million | 7th highest |
The biggest takeaway from the 2023 report, however, seemed to be the spike in investment fraud. Losses due to investment fraud increased by 74% — the most of any crime type tracked by the IC3. Illinois alone experienced a $4.57 billion loss. The report also found that 30 to 49-year-olds were most susceptible to becoming victim to investment fraud.
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Other prevalent internet crimes were BEC and tech support scams. BEC targets both businesses and individuals performing transfers of funds. Tech support scams were found to be responsible for more than half the losses of the elderly in 2023.
Top Three Internet Crimes in Illinois
2023 | 1. Investment Fraud — Loss: $131,696,173 |
2022 | 1. BEC — Loss: $83,883,493 |
The healthcare and public health industry was also paralyzed in particular last year, as it was deemed the number one critical infrastructure target of ransomware. Central Illinois got a taste of this when HSHS experienced system outages due to a cyber attack. It took two weeks to restore. These breaches still persist even into 2024, as just last month, Carle pharmacies were victim to a nationwide software cyber attack.
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The FBI encourages people to remain vigilant by checking in with the IC3’s consumer and industry alerts.
“The IC3 gives the public a direct way to report internet crime to the FBI and enables us to collect data, advance investigations, and identify changes in the threat landscape. Reporting internet crime is critical to the FBI’s efforts,” said FBI Springfield Special Agent in Charge David Nanz. “The intelligence gathered through IC3 allows us to provide the public and our many partners with information, services, support, training, and leadership to stay ahead of the threat.”
If you or someone you know is an internet crime victim, you can submit a complaint to IC3.
The full 2023 Internet Crime Report, as well as past annual reports, can be found on IC3’s website.
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