Cybersecurity

FBI: Cybercrimes on the rise because of sophisticated scams

In 2015, $220 million was lost to wire fraud in the United States. In 2019, losses will surpass $1.5 billion, according to WFG National Title Insurance Company.

In the past, attempts to trick people were often clumsy, FBI agents told journalists on Friday. Now they can be sophisticated. If people are asked via email to transfer money under a deadline, they should not rush and instead call a known number of the person the email is purportedly from and confirm the request, the agents said.

"The emails have gotten well-crafted and quite detailed. They're highly tailored to that particular victim," said Gabriel Gundersen, an FBI supervisory special agent with the Oregon Cyber Task Force. "It's a social engineering piece, where they're coercing a victim to do something based on an artificial agenda or an artificial timeline."