Cybercriminal activity in the United States reached an all-time high in 2024, with total reported losses climbing to $16.6 billion, according to the FBI’s latest Internet Crime Report. The Bureau attributed much of this increase to a surge in online fraud and ransomware attacks, marking a sharp 33% rise in financial losses compared to 2023.
“As more aspects of daily life move online, the opportunities for cybercriminals have expanded dramatically,” said Chad Yarbrough, the FBI’s operations director for criminal and cyber investigations. “Today, it can take only a few keystrokes to infiltrate networks, disrupt essential services like water systems, or drain digital wallets. These numbers are especially alarming considering the considerable efforts we made last year to make cybercrime riskier and more expensive for attackers.”
In total, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recorded 859,532 complaints in 2024. The agency noted that actual losses are likely higher, as many incidents go unreported.
Notable Figures Impacting the Title and Real Estate Sector
Several categories of cybercrime directly impacted industries tied to real estate and title transactions:
- Real Estate Fraud: The FBI received 9,359 reports of real estate-related scams in 2024, totaling $173.6 million in losses. This is a slight drop in complaint numbers from 2023’s 9,521 cases, though financial losses increased from $145.2 million the previous year.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): BEC scams, which typically involve attackers impersonating business contacts to trick companies into transferring funds, generated 21,442 complaints in 2024, resulting in $2.77 billion in losses. This represents a slight decline from 2023’s 21,489 complaints and $2.95 billion in losses.
- Phishing and Spoofing: These social engineering attacks accounted for 193,407 complaints in 2024, with financial damages reaching $70 million. Although the number of incidents fell significantly from 298,878 in 2023, losses climbed steeply from $18.7 million the previous year.
- Identity Theft: For the first time, the FBI’s report separated identity theft data, recording 47,919 incidents in 2024. These crimes led to $174.3 million in losses — up from 19,778 reported cases and $126.2 million in losses in 2023.
A Real-World Case: Stopping a Wire Transfer Scam
The FBI highlighted a success story involving its Financial Fraud Kill Chain — a rapid response initiative designed to intercept fraudulent wire transfers. In one case, homebuyers preparing to finalize a property purchase received a deceptive email, appearing to come from their real estate agent, instructing them to wire $956,342 to a fraudulent U.S. bank account.
Two days later, the buyers realized the email was fake. After being alerted, the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team quickly acted to freeze the receiving account. They successfully recovered $955,060 of the stolen funds and returned the money to the victims.
