“Not all the complaints include an associated age range, but of the data with age ranges, people over the age of 60 filed the most, with more than 147,000 complaints. They also reported losing the most money, $4.8 billion, which is more than a quarter of the total losses reported in 2024 and a 43% increase from 2023, the report said.
The average loss among people over the age of 60 was $83,000, more than four times the average overall loss in 2024.”
“Investment scams were the top cause of loss, raking in more than $6.5 billion, the FBI said. Compromised business emails and tech support scams led to over $2.7 billion and more than $1.4 billion in losses, respectively, while personal data breaches were responsible for over $1.4 billion in losses.
Romance scams landed sixth on the list, with people reporting more than $672 million lost to the schemes.
California residents reported the most losses. Vermont is the U.S. state with the fewest reported losses. The Northern Marina Islands, a U.S. territory, reported the fewest losses in 2024.
The vast majority of funds were lost when cryptocurrency was used, the FBI said, followed by wire transfers and credit or debit cards.”
(CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-scams-2024-statistics-fbi/)