(WTAJ) — Pennsylvania residents lost over $108 million through online scams in 2020 and ranks No. 8 in money lost to scams across the United States, according to a study conducted by Social Catfish.
Social Catfish is an online search and verification site for identifying online identities. Their study utilized data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Pennsylvanians lost $108,506,204 while over $4.2 billion was lost in 2020 across the United States. $7.6 billion was reported stolen from 2017 to 2019.
California | $621,452,320 |
New York | $415,812,917 |
Texas | $313,565,225 |
Florida | $295,032,829 |
Ohio | $170,171,951 |
Illinois | $150,496,678 |
Missouri | $115,913,584 |
Pennsylvania | $108,506,204 |
Virginia | $101,661,604 |
Colorado | $100,663,897 |
Rhode Island | $7,669,670 | |
Alaska | $7,342,743 | |
Maine | $7,073,260 | |
Delaware | $6,486,617 | |
Montana | $5,669,293 | |
Wyoming | $5,096,704 | |
New Hampshire | $4,949,296 | |
West Virginia | $4,823,786 | |
Vermont | $4,175,799 | |
South Dakota | $3,208,241 |
Younger people have been reported to have the fastest growth rate of victims, specifically people age 20 and under. They have displayed the fastest growth rate since 2017. In 2017, there were 9,053 victims in that age group. That number grew to 23,186 victims in 2020.
Where are they getting scammed the most? According to a poll conducted by Social Catfish, Facebook is the top platform. Google Hangouts, Instagram, WhatsApp and Plenty of Fish round out the top five.
These scammers aren’t just coming from the United States. In fact, they don’t even rank in the top five for scammer origins. According to the study, Nigeria, China, India, Romania and Mexico conduct the most internet scams against residents of the United States.
A new type of scam is on the rise: spoofing. Spoofing is where scammers can impersonate the number of someone else over the phone: your bank, your credit card company, your employer, etc.
Scammers also use robocalls, viruses, pop-up advertisements and fake profiles to scam victims. Scams can fall into your email inbox too; scammers will attach links to fake websites and pretend to be trusted businesses. These links could pretend to be finance companies claiming your bank account was hacked or social media accounts asking you to “reset your password.”
And before you let your guard down on online dating sites, think again. Scammers have been known to create fake profiles on dating apps to catfish victims. Catfishing is when someone creates a fake identity online with a false name and photos of another person, oftentimes a social media influencer that is not super well-known.
Internet scammers are constantly developing new methods of attack to steal money. However, there are some things you can keep in mind while online and patterns you can recognize:
If you or someone you know was a victim of fraud, report it to the FTC, FBI and IC3.
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