FBI reports 12x surge in phishing complaints over five years

Analysis by Atlas VPN reveals that phishing in the US soared over 12 times in the last five years, hitting a record 241,342 complaints in 2020.

This data is provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) branch called Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). This branch was established in May 2000 as a center to receive complaints of Internet crime.

According to Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, “The FBI data only confirms what most of our other reports found when looking back at 2020. Last year cyber criminals went on an internet crime spree and caused more damages than ever before.”

In 2016, the FBI’s crime center received 19,465 phishing reports, while in 2020, the number jumped to 241,342, representing an 1140% increase. Phishing-related monetary damages amounted to $54 million in 2020.

Phishing complaints increased by more than 110% when comparing 2020 to the previous year.

2020 internet crimes by type

The Federal Bureau of Investigations reports that they received a record number of reports from US citizens in 2020 at 791,790, a 69% growth from 2019.

Moreover, losses due to internet crime increased by $700 million from $3.5 billion in 2019 to $4.2 billion in 2020.

The American public was mostly attacked by phishing/vishing/smishing/pharming attacks. The second most common internet crime in the US is non-payment or non-delivery, at 108,889 complaints in 2020, amounting to $265 million in losses.