Cybercrime: It’s Not What You Think It Is
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Cybercrime: It’s Not What You Think It Is

by | Feb 25, 2020 | Firm News

According to PC Magazine the folks at Hotspot Shield/Pango took a look at the info state by state to see which type of cybercrime hurts most in your area. More than 50 percent of the 50 states pegged nondelivery or nonpayment for goods or services as the number-one problem (see the chart above). Extortion is bad for about 20 percent—that’s 10 states plus the District of Columbia. (Imagine that, extortion in DC.)

It turns out the high-profile crimes we read about a lot, such as phishing scams and ransomware are way down on the list.

Nonpayment/nondelivery was not where the most money was lost, however. Investment scams were up with loss per victim average of around $2.4 million. That’s a total of $252.9 million for the year; but for the biggest loss overall, look to business email compromise (BEC) and email account compromise (EAC), that special form of fraud where a business or individual is fooled into not only falling for the scam but also sending money to the scammer. That cost around $1.3 billion total for the year 2018. Total cybercrime loss in 2018: $2.7 billion.