McHenry Times

Cyber crime has been sweeping the nation, and a recent report by the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center found that Illinois was near the top of the list for the largest number of victims.

“According to the FBI's 2022 Internet Crime Report, Illinois had the nation's 5th highest number of reported victims of cyber fraud last year,” state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) posted on Facebook recently.

Americans lost at least $10 billion in cyber crimes last year, a recent report by FOX 2 Now said. Business email compromise scams were the worst at $83.3 million lost. This scam goes after businesses and people transferring funds. Other major scams included investment fraud at $75.6 million and tech support scams at $31.4 million.

“At the end of the day, all fraud boils down to this: it’s a lie to steal your money,” David Nanz, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Springfield office, said in the FOX report.

Nanz stressed that protecting yourself from being victimized from such scams can require both vigilance and skepticism. He also added that the importance of reporting such crimes to the authorities is so they will begin an investigation into who the scammers are. Additionally, they can use the information to find out where the scammers are from and how they are operating. Nanz noted that the reason this information is needed is for authorities to be able to “connect the dots.” If someone is being targeted in a scam, the agent said they can be sure that there are many others who are being targeted as well.

Nanz said that there are several ways to protect yourself and be vigilant. One important way is to call the bank, federal government agency or whomever the scammer claims to be from to confirm that the text message, email or phone call is actually legitimate.