The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has ranked Nigeria as one of the top 20 countries worst affected by Internet crimes in 2020.
The 2020 Internet Crime Report of the FBI Complaint Centre (IC3) listed Africa’s most populous nation as the 16th.
A statement issued by the FBI Deputy Director, Paul Abbate, the bureau said its complaint centre received a record number of complaints from Americans in 2020.
It added that 791,790 of the complainants reported losses
exceeding $4.1 billion, representing 69 per cent increase in total complaints as against 2019 figures.
The FBI noted that Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) schemes continued to be the costliest, stating that there were 19,369 complaints with an adjusted loss of approximately $1.8 billion.
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According to the United States agency, phishing scams had 241,342 complaints, with adjusted losses of over $54 million, while the number of ransomware incidents also continues to rise, with 2,474 incidents reported in 2020.
Through the Recovery Asset Team, the report said the IC3 unit of the FBI worked with its partners to successfully freeze approximately $380 million of the $462 million in reported losses in 2020, nearly 82 per cent.
The top 20 countries are: 1. United Kingdom; 2. Canada; 3. India; 4. Greece; 5. Australia; 6. South Africa; 7. France; 8. Germany; 9. Mexico; 10. Belgium.
The rest are 11. Brazil; Philippines; 13. Italy; 14. Spain; 15. Netherlands; 16. Nigeria; 17. Pakistan; 18. China; 19. Colombia; 20. Hong Kong .
