SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Cyber criminals are after your hard earned money.

The FBI released its 2022 Internet Crime Complaint Center (1C3) report which shows trends in cybercrimes in the past year. 

In state rankings, Illinois was 5th highest for number of victims and 7th highest for victim dollar loss. Investment schemes caused the highest amount of financial lost. 

Springfield FBI Special Agent in Charge David Nanz explained that investment schemes are when someone convinces you to send them money for investments, but don't provide anything in return. Oftentimes this scams comes with the promise of low or no risk and high returns.

"Before you invest in anything, make sure you understand the investment and also make sure that you've done your due diligence on the person who's pitching the investment to you," said Nanz. "All too often, when we interview investment fraud victims, we ask them to tell us what the investment was, and they're unable to do so. ... And on top of that, they've invested with someone who they've done no records checks on, no due diligence, and so forth."

Investment scams losses rose by 127 percent from last year. Nanz says the best thing to do is make sure you are doing enough research on opportunities before you send anyone money or information. 

"Unfortunately, we have these investment fraudsters, they're very good at social engineering, they're very good at manipulating the victims into thinking that they're investing in a legitimate investment," said Nanz. 

The FBI said they've also seen increases in cryptocurrency scams. Nanz attributes the uptick to people not knowing enough about crytpocurrency and falling for easy traps. 

The amount of money lost to scams went up by 49% last year, even though the number of complaints went down by 5%. 

Nanz told WAND there are some simple steps you can take to make sure your money is safe: 

  • If you get a call requesting money or information, hang up and look up the company's phone number directly. If you were talking to an actual employee, they should have a record of the call.
  • Do research before handing over any money or information. Focus your investments on companies that you know. 
  • If an opportunity seems too good to be true, it probably is. Trust your instincts and ask for a professional opinion if you are unsure. 

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