DENVER — Colorado residents lost more than $187 million to cybercriminals last year, an increase of almost $9 million over 2022, the FBI reported on Monday.
The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 880,000 complaint nationwide in 2023 with potential losses of more than $12.5 billion. The top three scams reported by victims in the U.S. were phishing, personal data breaches, and nonpayment or non-delivery.
In Colorado, the top three reported scams were investment fraud ($60 million), business email compromise ($57 million) and tech support ($23 million), the FBI said.
> The video above aired Feb. 1: People ages 18-24 lose more money in scams than seniors do, BBB says
“Sadly, we routinely see victims from all walks of life whose livelihoods and life savings have been wiped out by scammers,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek in a news release. “Criminals continue to develop new tricks to defraud people, so think twice before clicking on a link and report suspicious activity to law enforcement.”
Victims ages 30 to 49 were most likely to report losses to investment fraud, while those older than 60 accounted for more than half of losses to tech support scams, the FBI said.
Seniors were the most victimized age group nationwide, with more than 100,000 complaints to the FBI totaling more than $3 billion in losses.
Here's how Colorado ranked in 2024 in several categories:
- 15th in number of complaints (11,475)
- 19th in total losses ($187,621,731)
- 16th in number of victims (4,178)
- 12th in losses per victim ($123,104,339)
- 7th in complaints per 100,000 residents (195.2)
- 22nd in losses per 100,000 residents ($3,192,143)
Among all states, California ranked No. 1 in both the number of complaints (77,271) and in total losses ($2,159,454,513), followed by Texas, Florida and New York.
Anyone who believes they are the victim of a cybercrime can file a complaint at this link.
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