Cold, hard truth: Alaskans lose 26 million US dollars for internet crimes

May 13th (Upi) – According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Alaskans lost more than 26 million US dollars last year through investment fraud, E -Mail compromises and technical support fraud.

The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center published its report from Internet Crime 2024 last month. On Tuesday, FBI Anchorage Alaskaner reported 6,770 complaints of losses of USD 26.2 million, which declined by 17% compared to 2023 when Alaskan lost $ 31.7 million. In the past ten years, Alaskan has reported online losses of more than 118 million US dollars.

More than $ 11.7 million or 45%of the losses of the past year were cryptocurrency.

“In the past year alone, Alaskaner reported to financial losses due to online fraud and was over 26 million US dollars, many of which affected cryptocurrency transactions,” said the responsible Special Agent, who was responsible for the FBI anchorage field.

“This is not just stolen money – it is the stolen savings and pension funds of the hard -working Americans who were deducted from our local economy,” added Day.

According to the FBI, the internet crimes that Alaskan met fell into three categories.

Investors were deceptive to make purchases on the basis of incorrect information.

Business -e -e -Mail compromises or BEC companies and people who work with suppliers who carry out cable transmission payments. The scams would affect e -mail accounts, telephone numbers and virtual discussion applications in order to carry out non -authorized funds.

With technical support fraud “posed” people as technical or customer support service in order to obtain private information.

Last month, the FBI published its annual report on Internet crimes, in which cyber criminal citizens cost almost 16 billion US dollars last year, as phishing, extortion and personal data against the violations of the personal data. The financial losses for 2024 exceeded the losses for 2023 by 33%.

“Reporting is one of the first and most important steps to combat crimes so that the law enforcement authorities can use this information in order to combat a variety of fraud and fraud,” said FBI director Kash Patel last month.

The FBI, regardless of financial loss, calls on to inform all financial institutions involved in the fraudulent transactions and then enter a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.GOV).

“In order to strengthen our collective reaction to this growing threat and prevent further exploitation and financial damage,” said Day, “we ask the residents and companies to remain vigilant and immediately report online fraud to their financial institution and IC3.”