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Cybercrime Losses Exceeded $10 Billion in 2022, FBI Report Says

The FBI’s IC3 recorded $10.3 billion in reported losses from 800,944 complaints in 2022. Here’s what that total includes—and what it leaves out.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 800,944 complaints and recorded $10.3 billion in reported losses in 2022. That figure is the total reported through IC3—not an audited tally of every cybercrime or every victim’s losses. The 2022 report is not the latest available: IC3’s homepage lists $12.5 billion in complaint-reported losses for 2023 and $16.6 billion for 2024.

What the FBI’s $10.3 billion figure counts

The figure comes from complaints submitted to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which collects reports about a wide range of internet scams affecting people around the globe. It describes losses reported to IC3; it does not establish the full amount lost to cybercrime. Some incidents are never reported, and the figure should not be read as a census, an audited national total, or a measure of every victim’s experience. See the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report.

Complaint volume and reported dollars are different measures. Complaint counts indicate how many reports IC3 received, while the loss figure totals reported monetary losses. Neither alone shows the severity of a crime for an individual victim or captures incidents that were not reported.

How reported losses and complaints changed from 2018 to 2022

IC3’s five-year comparison shows reported losses rising each year in this period, even as complaint volume fell between 2021 and 2022.

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Year Complaints received by IC3 Reported losses
2018 351,937 $2.7 billion
2019 467,361 $3.5 billion
2020 791,790 $4.2 billion
2021 847,376 $6.9 billion
2022 800,944 $10.3 billion

These figures are annual complaint and reported-loss totals in the FBI IC3’s 2022 Internet Crime Report. The comparison shows what was reported in each year; it does not by itself explain why reported losses changed.

Which reported crime types stood out in 2022?

The report presents both complaint counts and reported losses by crime type. Those measures highlight different things: phishing led the listed categories by complaint volume, while investment-related complaints and business email compromise accounted for large reported-loss totals.

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Crime type 2022 figure reported by IC3
Investment-related complaints $3,311,742,206 in reported losses
Business email compromise $2,742,354,049 in reported losses
Phishing 300,497 complaints

These are separate category statistics, not a complete breakdown of every dollar or complaint. A high complaint count does not necessarily mean the category had the greatest total losses, and aggregate loss amounts do not tell an individual reader how likely they are to be victimized. Figures are from the FBI IC3’s 2022 crime-type tables.

Why the ransomware loss figure is not the full cost

IC3 recorded 2,385 ransomware complaints and more than $34.3 million in adjusted losses for 2022. The report explicitly warns that this amount may be artificially low. Its adjusted-loss figure excludes indirect costs such as lost business, time, wages, files, equipment, and third-party remediation services. Some victims did not report a loss amount, and the figure does not include reports made directly to FBI field offices or agents. The report also notes that many infections go unreported.

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The FBI report defines ransomware as: “Ransomware is a type of malicious software, or malware, that encrypts data on a computer, making it unusable.” The complaint and adjusted-loss figures, definition, and caveats appear in the IC3 report’s ransomware section.

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What IC3 recommends to reduce ransomware risk

The report recommends practical steps for individuals and organizations:

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  • Install updates for operating systems and software.
  • Train users to recognize suspicious links and attachments, including through phishing exercises.
  • If Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is used, secure it and monitor its use.
  • Keep an offline backup of data. An external hard drive is one possible way to maintain an offline copy; the FBI report does not name or endorse a particular product.

The report says that reporting an incident may help the FBI provide decryption information, recover stolen data, or pursue seizure or recovery of ransom payments. These are possible forms of assistance, not guaranteed outcomes. Details are in the FBI IC3 ransomware guidance.

Is 2022 the latest year in the FBI’s loss figures?

No. The 2022 report provides the figures for the year in the headline, but IC3’s homepage lists $12.5 billion in complaint-reported losses for 2023 and $16.6 billion for 2024. Those later figures are annual complaint-reported totals, not a comprehensive count of all cybercrime losses. See the IC3 homepage’s reported-loss comparison.

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