CLEVELAND — While we are in National Consumer Protection Week, FBI Cleveland reminded the public about scams and frauds happening worldwide that target Americans. 

What You Need To Know

  • Phishing is one of the most active internet-based crimes

  • In 2023, The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 880,418 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion

  • Require all accounts with password logins to have strong, unique credentials

Phishing, one of the most active internet-based crimes, is the use of unsolicited email, text messages and telephone calls purportedly from a legitimate company requesting personal, financial and/or login credentials.

According to the FBI IC3.gov report, over 298,000 people reported phishing-based crimes in 2023. As a result of a phishing scam, one’s computer or device can be compromised, opening the door for others to steal valuable information.

“In 2023, The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 880,418 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion. This is almost a 10% increase in complaints from 2022 (800,944 complaints received) and a 22% increase in losses from 2022 ($10.3 billion). That’s more than 2,400 complaints every single day,” said FBI Cleveland Special Agent in Charge Greg Nelsen. “Ohio ranked number five in the top ten states of complaints, and number 17 in victim losses at over $197 million. And while we don’t like to see that number grow, we want to remind everyone to step up and report the crime or attempted scam. That is the only way we can identify criminals, investigate their actions, and dismantle their network.”

To protect against workplace phishing, the FBI recommended the following:

 

  • Educate employees on how to identify all types of phishing
  • Advise employees to be cautious when providing sensitive information, such as login credentials
  • Create protocols for employees to send suspicious emails to IT departments for confirmation
  • Mark external emails with a banner denoting the email is from an external source to assist users in detecting spoofed emails
  • Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails from reaching end users

 

While at home, the FBI recommended the following:

 

  • Never accept a pop-up request or open a link that asks you to give control of your computer to another person or perceived entity
  • Require all accounts with password logins to have strong, unique credentials
  • Require multi-factor authentication for all services
  • Advise family members not to open e-mail attachments from senders they do not recognize 

 

To learn more about these and other scams targeting Americans, visit FBI.gov.