Nigeria Takes The 16th Place In FBI’s List Of Countries Worst Affected By Internet Crimes
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its 2020 Internet Crime Report (IC3) has ranked Nigeria 16th among the countries most affected by internet crime in the world as Nigeria received 443 complaints relating to internet crime within the year.
The 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime—an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019—and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion.
Excluding the United States, at the top of the list of the most affected countries is the United Kingdom followed by Canada, India, Greece and Australia.
Nigeria and South Africa were listed among the ‘worst’ 20. South Africa was rated sixth with 1,754 victims while Nigeria had 443 victims. Countries like Pakistan, China, Columbia, and Hong Kong ranked better than Nigeria.
The report noted that victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud, adding that one of the most prevalent schemes seen during the pandemic has been government impersonators.
It further stated that fraudsters took advantage of the year 2020 because of the pandemic as the top five crimes reported by victims in 2020 were phishing scams, personal data breach, non-payment/non-delivery scams, Identity theft and extortion.
The IC3 received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, with fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals.
“Criminals are reaching out to people through social media, emails, or phone calls pretending to be from the government,” the report said.
“The scammers attempt to gather personal information or illicit money through charades or threats.”
The top 20 countries: 1. United Kingdom; 2. Canada; 3. India; 4. Greece; 5. Australia; 6. South Africa; 7. France; 8. Germany; 9. Mexico; 10. Belgium; 11. Brazil; Philippines; 13. Italy; 14. Spain; 15. Netherlands; 16. Nigeria; 17. Pakistan; 18. China; 19. Colombia; 20. Hong Kong .
Regardless of the low complaints from Nigeria, some Nigerians have been arrested in connection with major internet fraud outside the country.
Source; Channels TV
