Hampton Roads, Va. – Right now criminals abroad and here in the United States are working to try and access your bank account information to steal your money and the FBI wants to warn you about it.
“Cyber security is directly related to our national security. Not only are nation-state adversaries becoming more persistent, the cybercriminals are also becoming more sophisticated,” said Jason Bilnoski, the Assistant Special Agent in charge of the FBI Norfolk Field Office.
Cybercriminals are working to try and target you at home and at work by trying to access your cell phone, laptop, and other devices connected to the internet.
“Unfortunately, ransomware does not discriminate and it’s targeting victims. Everything from school systems to hospitals to 911 centers. Really life safety is been targeted by ransomware attacks,” said Bilnoski.
In 2021, the FBI said there were 6.9 billion dollars in losses to victims with 2,300 complaints per day.
Here are the different trends reported by the FBI:
Business Email Compromise
In 2021, the IC3 received 19,954 Business Email Compromise (BEC) complaints with adjusted losses at nearly $2.4 billion. BEC targets both businesses and individuals performing transfers of funds, and is most frequently carried out when a subject compromises legitimate business email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers.
Confidence Fraud / Romance Scams
Confidence Fraud/Romance scams encompass those…
