Scams account for most of all financially motivated cybercrime

The scam industry is becoming more structured and involves more and more parties divided into hierarchical groups, according to Group-IB.

The number of such groups jumped to a record high of 390, which is 3.5 times more than last year, when the maximum number of active groups was close to 110. Due to Scam-as-a-Service, in 2021 the number of cybercriminals in one scam gang increased 10 times compared to 2020 and now reaches 100.

With more and more internet users falling victim to cybercrime every day, fraudsters prefer good old techniques such as phishing (18%), scams and fraud (57%), and malware infections and reputational attacks (25%). In 2021, scams were the most common type of cybercrime.