NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA AMONG FBI TOP 20 COUNTRIES MOST AFFECTED BY INTERNET CRIMES
Nigeria and South Africa are some of the top 20 countries most affected by internet crimes in the world, according to a recent report released by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The report says Nigeria received 443 cybercrime related complaints in 2020 while South Africa received 1,754 complaints within the same year.
The UK, Canada and India ranked first, second and third consecutively while South Africa and Nigeria- the two Africans on the top 20 list were ranked 6 and 16.
In the year 2020 alone, victims lost $4.2 billion with the most targeted age bracket being those above 60, the FBI report revealed.
The top five crimes reported include phishing, non-payment/non-delivery, extortion, personal data breach and identity theft with the most prevalent scheme being criminals impersonating as government officials.
Excerpts from the FBI report reads:
“Criminals are reaching out to people through social media, emails, or phone calls pretending to be from the government. The scammers attempt to gather personal information or illicit money through charades or threats,”
“As the response to COVID-19 turned to vaccinations, scams emerged asking people to pay out of pocket to receive
the vaccine, put their names on a vaccine waiting or obtain early access.
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“Fraudulent advertisements for vaccines popped up on social media platforms, or came via email, telephone calls, online, or from unsolicited/unknown sources.”
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