News
Tech support scams cause nearly $350 million in damages in 2021
April 2022 by Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN analysis reveals that tech support scam losses increased by 137% in 2021 and caused $347.66 million in damages to unwitting individuals globally.
Tech support fraud involves a criminal pretending to provide customer, security, technical support, or assistance to deceive unwary victims. Criminals may act as support or service agents, offering to resolve difficulties such as a hacked email account or bank account, a computer virus, or a software license renewal.
The analysis is based on recently made public data by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The figures reflect inspection on a global scale, not only in the US.
The year 2021 was record-breaking in terms of damages. Losses to tech support scams more than doubled, from $146.48 million in 2020 to $347.66 million in 2021.
In other words, individuals lost close to 1$ million per day to these types of scams.
Also, the majority of victims (almost 60%) were over 60 years old, and they accounted for 68% of the damages (nearly $238 million) in 2021.
Yet, last year was not unusual in terms of growth in damages. Losses caused by tech support scams have been rising, on average, by 127% every year since 2017.
The severity of the issue is clearly seen when contrasting losses in 2017 to 2021. Throughout 2017, fraudsters swindled over $14.81 million from victims globally. In 2021, it took criminals around 15 days to cause that much damage.
