Here's a scary thought internet fans. Cybercrimes on the internet cost Michiganders millions and millions of dollars last year.

How serious is this? Here's more from mlive.com:

Top crimes include phishing, non-payment, personal data breach, identity theft and extortion. The highest losses nationally were reported by older victims with those over 60 years old accounting for nearly a quarter of losses.

And this is all based on the 2021 FBI Internet Crimes Report, which ranks Michigan as one of the top 10 states for losses with over 10,000 victims.

I try really hard not to fall for any phishing scams where people try to scam you out of thousands and thousands of dollars.

Even my phone alerts me of the possibility of a scam. I get those kind of calls at least three times a week. I simply don't answer any calls if I don't recognize the number.

Mlive.com tells us:

Phishing, emails designed to trick people into falling for a scam, accounted for the biggest chunk of last year's internet victims. Of the nearly 550,000 victims, about 60% of them reported losses from phishing scams.

This is absolutely mind boggling isn't it? It's so easy these days to send out several emails. You can get scams over the phone, on your computer, social media or email, and it only takes one bad email to trick anyone.

Mlive.com breaks it down:

The FBI report also shows that total losses from internet crimes have increased nearly 400% in the past five years, going from $1.4 billion in 2017 to $6.9 billion in 2021.

No wonder companies require their employees to watch videos on avoiding internet crimes at all costs. It's a dangerous world out there, so let's not help out the criminals by falling for their phishing tactics. Good luck!

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