The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has listed Nigeria among the world’s ‘top’ 20 countries worst affected by internet crimes in 2020.

It named Nigeria as the 16th in its top 20 international victim countries of online based crime.

The statistics were part of the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) 2020 Internet Crime Report released on Wednesday.

The report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime in America – an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019 – and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion.

It also includes COVID-19 scam statistics.

According to the list, Nigeria with 443 victims and South Africa with 1,754 victims were the only two Africa nations in the ‘worst’ 20.

The top 20 countries and their number of victims are: 1. United Kingdom 216,633; 2. Canada 5,399; 3. India 2,930; 4. Greece 2,314; 5. Australia 1,807; 6. South Africa 1,754: 7. France 1,640: 8. Germany 1,578: 9. Mexico 1,164; 10. Belgium 1,023; 11. Brazil 951; 12. Philippines 898; 13. Italy 728: 14. Spain 618; 15. Netherlands 450; 16. Nigeria 443; 17. Pakistan 443; 18. China 442; 19. Colombia 418; 20. Hong Kong 407.

The global list excludes the United States, which state-specific statistics are provided separately in the report and in the accompanying 2020 State Reports.

According to the report, the top three crimes reported by victims in America in 2020 were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams and extortion.

Victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud.

It added: “Notably, 2020 saw the emergence of scams exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. The IC3 received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, with fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals.” (The Nation)

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