(COLORADO) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that in 2024, scammers took $243,517,403 from victims in Colorado.

The FBI said, according to a report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), Colorado was the seventh in the nation in terms of complaints filed per capita, with 14,848 reports made to IC3.

The over $243 million is an increase of nearly $56 million over the 2023 dollar amount. The FBI said the top three schemes with the largest dollar amount in losses are:

Investment Fraud ($90 million)

Business Email Compromise ($48 million)

Personal Data Breach ($23 million)

The FBI said the top three schemes in terms of the number of reports were:

Extortion (2,320)

Phishing/Spoofing (1,385)

Personal Data Breach (1,187)

The age group that reported the most complaints in Colorado was people aged 60 and older, with 3,125 people reporting losing $74,462,501 total.

“This report serves as a sobering reminder that Coloradans — especially senior citizens — continue to be prime targets for scammers who will jump at every opportunity to
defraud potential victims,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek. “Public vigilance is critical as cyber-enabled threats become more sophisticated and pervasive, impacting both our workplaces and our personal lives.”

Nationwide, IC3 got 859,532 complaints with a total reported loss of $16.6 billion, a 33% increase from 2023, according to the FBI.