FBI: Cybercriminals Made $2.7 Billion in 2018

This week, experts from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released a report on internet crime. According to law enforcement statistics, 351,926 complaints were received in 2018—a 14.3% increase compared to 2017. The total losses suffered by victims are estimated at $2.7 billion. On average, specialists received more than 900 complaints every day. The most common issues last year included business email compromise (BEC), data breaches, various forms of phishing, romance scams, non-payment and non-delivery fraud, and extortion.

It’s worth noting that the overall number of ransomware attacks dropped to 2014 levels. However, losses from such extortion have significantly increased, as criminals now carefully select their victims and try to inflict as much damage as possible to demand a substantial ransom.

BEC Attacks: The Most Serious Threat

IC3 experts identify BEC attacks as the most serious problem: last year, victims lost $1.3 billion to these schemes. Typically, a BEC attack involves compromising a legitimate email account of a company employee. The attackers then use this account to send fake emails to other employees or business partners, convincing them to transfer funds to fraudulent accounts using fake invoices and fictitious deals.

However, BEC attacks can also occur without compromising anyone’s email account. The term also covers scams where criminals use basic social engineering and simple tricks. For example, scammers may pose as representatives of a partner company in correspondence, using deception to get employees of the target company to pay a fake invoice or “accidentally” transfer funds to a fraudulent account.

BEC Attacks Are Growing Rapidly

The speed and effectiveness of BEC attacks can be seen in the statistics provided in the report. Last year, company losses from BEC attacks exceeded $1 billion for the first time, and IC3 analysts believe that 2019 will be even worse.