(BBC News) Criminals netted $3.5bn (£2.7bn) from cyber-crimes reported to the FBI alone in 2019, according to the service’s internet crime complaint centre (IC3). It received 467,361 complaints from individuals and businesses during the year and has had nearly five million since its inception in 2000.
Phishing and extortion remain the most popular ways of scamming people. It says techniques are becoming more sophisticated, making it harder for people to tell “real from fake”.