Cybercrime Costs US Consumers $20.7 Billion, Says Norton Study

The Norton Cybercrime Report released Wednesday pegs the total cybercrime cost for the U.S. consumers at $20.7 billion, with close to 71 million Americans falling prey to the online scam.

Losses resulting from cybercrime including malware attacks and phishing hit $110 billion across the world between July 2011 and July 2012, the report stated.

Nearly two-third of adults became victims of cybercrime and 46 percent of the victims last year comprised adults, the study indicated.

Apparently, 556 million adults experienced cybercrime over the period across the world with the number amounting to more than the entire European Union population. The figure represented nearly half of all adults online, CNET reported.

Nearly 75 percent of the respondents noted that cybercriminals were moving toward social networking sites. The study encompassed 13,000 participants across 24 countries.

There was a marked increase in cybercrime involving social networks and mobile technology with 21 percent of online adults falling prey to it, CNET observed, adding that 15 percent of the web users had their social network account infiltrated.

Nearly one in ten was a victim of fake links or scams through social networking sites.