There is a high ambiguity about how to define the term cybercrime. Formally, it means computer activities that are either illegal or considered illegal by some parties, and that may be carried out via global electronic networks (Phillips et al., 2022). The Internet Crime Complaint Center provides extensive overviews of the types of such crimes and their frequency (FBI, 2021). The most common ones are extortion, identity theft, personal data breach, non-payment, and phishing (sending fake emails to acquire personal data) (FBI, 2021). Overall, the report is highly concise and informative for professionals because it uses many easy-to-read graphs and tables.
Several social groups may be regarded as being subjected to increased danger of being crime victims. The striking fact is that the aggregated financial losses due to Internet crime among people over 60 years of age are twice as high as among those who are 30-39 years old (FBI, 2021). It should be remembered that elderly people use the Internet much less than other age groups (Statista Research Department, 2021). In most cases, they are not informed about typical deceptions practiced by scammers and send their passwords and banking information to unverified users. Another peculiarity of data is the great money loss that happens because of so-called business email compromise (FBI, 2021). It is a crime when some groups imitate regular business partners and, taking advantage of the inattention of employees, receive approval to conduct financial transactions. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) regularly educates businesses about the major tools used by organized crime groups for receiving approvals.
Finally, one of the major concerns for the FBI are crimes against children. It usually involves child abuse in the form of convincing them to act in a certain way. The most extreme examples are persuasion to send content of a sexual nature or calls to commit suicide. Such crimes are among the non-material crimes committed on the Internet, but at the same time they are no less dangerous. At the same time, it is obvious that such risks should not lead to the isolation of children from the Internet because it provides the valuable content for their development.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigations. 2021 Internet Crime Complaint Center Annual Report. Web.
Phillips, K., Davidson, J. C., Farr, R. R., Burkhardt, C., Caneppele, S., & Aiken, M. P. (2022). Conceptualizing Cybercrime: Definitions, Typologies and Taxonomies. Forensic Sciences, 2(2), 379-398.
U.S. internet usage penetration 2021, by age group. (2021). Web.