14 DAY TRIAL // Hackers work 24/7 and new victims of their malicious attempts appear every day. But what's interesting is that, of the total number of complainants who reported attacks, no less than 57.6 percent were male. This means that women are more difficult to trick when it comes to hacking/infecting/compromising a computer, so hackers would better search for men when looking for new victims.
"Nearly half were between the ages of 30 and 50 and one-third resided in one of the four most populated states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York. While most were from the United States, IC3 received a number of complaints from Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Mexico," the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) mentioned in the annual report.
Among the most reported malicious activities, we can find all sorts of attempts starting with online auction fraud and non-delivery of purchased goods, ending with credit card fraud, spam or child pornography. However, there are a lot of other dangerous activities out there, so extra-care is always recommended when connected to the web.
"The Internet presents a wealth of opportunity for would be criminals to prey on unsuspecting victims, and this report shows how extensive these types of crime have become," said James E. Finch, FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director. "What this report does not show is how often this type of activity goes unreported. Filing a complaint through IC3 is the best way to alert law enforcement authorities of Internet crime."
The report also revealed that men lost more money than women because of the online scams as they recorded losses of about $1.67 per person in comparison with $1 for women. The most frequent ways for contacting potential victims were by email, 73.6 percent, and websites, 32.7 percent, the report also revealed.