FARMINGTON — There was a nearly 50% decline in the amount of money New Mexico residents reported losing to Internet crime last year compared to 2020, according to a report issued by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
New Mexico victims reported losing $12.7 million in 2021, according to a news release from the FBI’s Albuquerque office. A year earlier, that figure had been $23.9 million.
The number of victims also declined from one year to the next, although not as steeply as the amount of money they lost. In 2020, there were 3,427 victims, while in 2021, that number was 2,644.
Despite the lower numbers, FBI officials encouraged New Mexico residents to remain vigilant about avoiding becoming an Internet crime victim.
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“This report should be a wake-up call for everyone who uses the internet,” Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda of the Albuquerque FBI Division stated in the news release. “What is particularly heart-breaking is the large number of our older New Mexico residents who were victimized. The FBI is working overtime to identify and stop these scammers, but the public can help us by immediately reporting suspected criminal internet activity to ic3.gov.”
New Mexico residents older than 60 comprised the largest share of victims and losses, according to the report. A total of 671 victims reported nearly $5.6 million in losses.
The report also shows that business email compromise/email account compromise scams accounted for the largest share of losses at $2.7 million, followed by confidence fraud/romance scams at nearly $2 million. But those BEC losses were down substantially from the 2021 total, which was more than $9.9 million.
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Despite the reduction in the number of New Mexico victims and the amount of money they lost in 2021, the national figures were up in 2021 compared to 2020. The report states there were nearly 850,000 complaints of suspected Internet crime reported last year, which was a 7% increase from 2020. Reported losses for 2021 were more than $6.9 billion, according to the report.
FBI officials say the website operated by the Internet Crime Complaint Center serves as a reliable and convenient mechanism for reporting suspected Internet crime, as the agency analyzes and share information from submitted complaints for investigative and intelligence purposes, for law enforcement and for public awareness.
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