FBI report ranks India in top 5 countries with victims of cybercrimes

India is among the top five countries in terms of victims of cybercrimes across the world, according to a new report by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The report, which comes from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), showed that even though India is among the top five, the United States and United Kingdom, have significantly more victims of cybercrime around the world.

According to the report, the US accounted for as many as 4,66,501 victims in 2021, followed by the UK with 3,03,949 victims. Canada and India followed, with 5,788 and 3,131 victims, respectively. It ranked a total of 20 countries, which recorded the most number of victims around the world. Countries like Pakistan, China and more came in behind India. Other countries around the world accounted for just over 25,000 victims.

“In 2021, IC3 continued to receive a record number of complaints from the American public: 847,376 reported complaints, which was a 7% increase from 2020, with potential losses exceeding $6.9 billion,” the report said. 

In 2021, business-email compromise schemes (BEC) led to losses worth $2.4 billion. These hacks target companies that have suppliers abroad and do wire transfers. Between 2017 and 2021, the IC3 has received a total of 2,760,044 complaints, which accounted for losses worth $18.7 billion.

Further, the report said that the IC3 received 23,903 complaints related to tech support frauds in 70 countries. In such scams, fraudsters dupe individuals by claiming to provide customer support, security and other technical assistance. Such scammers are commonly known to operate from India, with victims all over the world.

Losses from tech support scams amounted to more than $347 million, which was a more than 137 per cent increase from 2020.

Lastly, almost 60 per cent of the victims were aged over 60 years, according to the report. Such victims lost a total of $238 million, it said. Phishing, pharma scams, 'vishing' (voice phishing) were amongst the top cyber scams conducted in 2021.