The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says Nigeria received 443 complaints relating to internet crime last year.
The bureau stated this in its latest internet crime report.
The last times Nigeria featured in the annual reports were in 2016 when it was ranked 19th, and 2015 when it was ranked 3rd in the global cybercrime.
The report stated that victims of such scams globally lost $4.2 billion in 2020, compared to $3.5 billion lost in 2019.
The top five crimes, according to the report, include phishing, non-payment/non-delivery, extortion, and personal data breach and identity theft.
The report states: “Victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud.
“Notably, 2020 saw the emergence of scams exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. The IC3 received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, with fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals.”
The United Kingdom (UK) led among the most affected countries followed by Canada, India, Greece and Australia.
South Africa is the only other African country among the top 20, ranking sixth with 1,754 complaints.
The FBI’s internet crime complaint center said it received 791,790 complaints relating to internet crime — an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019.
