Digital Kleptos Are Actively Stealing Our Accounts, Our Money — And Our Peace of Mind

In 2024 the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 859,532 complaints from the public about cyber-enabled crime and fraud. That’s more than 2,000 complaints per day. The dollar losses of these internet-related crimes against businesses and individuals is staggering — over $16 BILLION in 2024, up more than 33% from the previous year. The FBI is certain the total losses are higher, since many victims of Internet crimes don’t report their experiences.

Online crimes against the public are exploding. Hackers are targeting all age groups, but the largest number of complaints reported to the FBI (and dollars lost) is higher for the 40+ demographic, and notably highest among those 60+. This makes sense when you consider that wealth typically concentrates among the older/elderly, they tend to be somewhat more vulnerable, and hackers prefer to target victims with lots of money.

Exactly what are these Digital Kleptos™ stealing?

Concert Tickets — In 2024 Hackers Made $600,000 Selling Stolen Taylor Swift Concert Tickets

Sensitive Legal Evidence and Documents — Private investigators hire mercenary hackers to steal private or attorney-client privileged information from the email inboxes of lawfirms. Hired hacker spies have become the secret weapon of litigants seeking an edge.

$255,000 Down Payment For A New Home — After months of house-hunting, Reagan Bartlo and her husband finally found their dream home. A few days before closing, Reagan received an email she thought was from her title company. The email provided instructions on how to wire the money for closing. She wired the $255,000 down payment per the email’s instructions. But on closing day she discovered that the email wasn’t from her title company, but from a hacker, who had stolen the entire down payment. "At that point, my whole world fell apart because I had already wired all of the down payment money for our house. And so our nest egg, our savings, everything at that moment was gone."

Social Security Benefits — Hackers change direct deposit settings in Social Security accounts, which redirects the recipient’s benefits to a criminal’s bank account. Mark Huffman received a letter informing him that the bank account change he requested had been completed. But he never requested one. Fortunately this story had a positive resolution, and the hackers didn’t get any of Mark’s benefits. When this happened to Marge Birenbaum, a local Social Security representative said this type of Internet hacking happens “all the time.” 

Payments For Cars — A Pennsylvania couple sent $45,000 to a car dealership while purchasing a Lexus SUV. But the SUV never arrived. A cyber hacker created a convincing imitation auto dealership website and then cloned legitimate CARFAX listings from other reputable auto dealers. Another victim lost $18,000 trying to buy the exact same Lexus hat he found advertised on a different fraudulent website.

Pharmacist Stealing Passwords — For 10 years, a trusted hospital pharmacist allegedly stole coworkers’ passwords, including for bank accounts, home surveillance systems, emails, dating apps and other accounts. He downloaded private photographs, videos and personal information, and even remotely activated webcams in exam rooms for telehealth sessions.

Emptying Bank Accounts — Cathy, a 70-year-old retiree, answered a call from an unknown number. On the other end of the line was a man who tricked her into allowing him to drain her bank account. Hackers have even figured out a way to automate stealing bank account balances with no interaction from the account owner. More often than not, consumers don’t get their stolen money returned.

Credit Card Accounts — After gaining control of her phone, hackers ripped off Avery Hartmans for $10,000. Even worse, her credit card company didn’t believe the charges were fraudulent. Three weeks shy of her wedding, she was saddled with $9,778.24 in debt. Last year, 62 million Americans had fraudulent charges on their credit or debit cards, and 92% of unauthorized transactions involve credit cards that weren’t lost or physically stolen. Last year’s total: $6.2 billion.

Cryptocurrency Accounts — Hackers create convincing imitation websites to steal private keys and seed phrases, or employ SIM-swapping techniques by taking control of victims’ phone numbers. Once cryptocurrency assets are transferred out of a victim’s account, they’re gone permanently. Cryptocurrency hacking has even moved offline into the physical world, with kidnapping attempts in broad daylight and night-time home invasions at gunpoint.

What Can We Do About This Explosion In Online Theft?

How do we beat these Digital Kleptomaniacs™ at their own game?

Much about the online world is outside our sphere of control. But there are ways to stack the deck in our favor. Consumers have been using the Internet since the 1990s, and now we know from painful experience what can go wrong, and what to do about it

We need to tell cybersecurity stories more persuasively to a much wider audience.

Every Tuesday, The Digital Kleptos™ newsletter provides you with:

• Up-to-date information about what can go wrong when using the Internet.

• Useful, actionable advice you can use to keep yourself and your family safer online.

• Thoughtful cybersecurity analysis — sometimes from a very different point of view.

• Impactful cybersecurity stories that appeared in mainstream media, perfect for persuasively engaging non-technical staff, family or friends.

• If you’re a cyber newbie, you’ll benefit from bite-sized, easily digestible advice.

• If you’re a cyber pro, you’ll find different ways to describe cyber issues using words, phrases and images more likely to resonate with typical consumers. This will help build a bridge between the technical folks and the rest of us.

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Weekly resources to help keep you safer online — protecting you from hackers, online scammers, and other Digital Kleptomaniacs™.

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Cybersecurity is a modern form of wealth, and you deserve to keep what you've earned.

Looking forward to connecting again next week.

— Anthony Collette

Digital Kleptos™