NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A recent FBI report shows staggering amounts of money are being lost to online scammers across the country, including in the Volunteer State.
According to the 2023 Internet Crime Report, Tennessee lost $161 million to online predators. This is a devastating trend and represents a 40% increase from 2022’s loss of $113 million.
Tennessee ranks 31st for losing the most money to cybercrime. A total of $12.5 billion disappeared nationwide in 2023, the report said.
People 60 and older are at a higher risk of falling victim to these hackers, said Regis Billings, supervisory special agent with the FBI’s Nashville field agency cyber team. He attributes this statistic to a lack of technical knowledge and experience among older adults.
“It’s heartbreaking for people who have invested their life savings in tech support scams, romance scams, or thought they were rolling their 401(k) into other investments like cryptocurrency, only to be completely scammed by bad actors,” Billing said Si said. “We see that a lot of this is around the emerging use of technology by new users who haven’t had the opportunity to grow with the technology.”
According to reports, Tennessee residents filed a total of 8,484 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year. In 2023, IC3 recorded 880,418 complaints nationwide.
“If you feel you have been a victim of one of these crimes, please contact your local law enforcement partners to verify what happened,” Billings said.
FBI data shows tech support scams, investment fraud and business email compromises are the top categories of losses in Tennessee.
“In a lot of tech scams, they use the name of the U.S. government, either the FBI or the IRS, and claim or pretend to be the government,” Billings said. “The U.S. government won’t tell you over text or over the Internet Give us cash in exchange for us not prosecuting you. Someone will show up to your house in person as an agent and show you their credentials.”
Billings said most cybercriminals come from overseas. He explained that their goal was to improve the country’s economy by stealing dollars.
“They’re looking for an additional source of revenue, and without producing anything, the easiest way to do that is to steal it,” Billings said. “We’ve seen some internet-based criminology use crime, it’s very easy, the cost of entry is low, and they’re able to use new technologies to bypass sanctions, such as cryptocurrencies to provide large amounts of money to these countries. They really want to take advantage of us.”
Billings recommends enabling two-factor authentication on your online accounts to ensure your funds and personal information are more secure.
“Typically, this is a free service and they won’t use it because of the inconvenience it would cause, but the safety benefits completely outweigh any inconvenience to the individual,” Billings said.
If you believe you are or have been a victim of Internet crime, please contact your local FBI office or file a complaint at ic3.gov.
To read the full 2023 Internet Crime Report and find cybersecurity resources, click here.