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State of Scams Study: CA No. 1 Most-Scammed State Losing $1.2Bn, CA Woman Lost $248k in Crypto Romance Scam Avail for Interview
September 2022 by Social Catfish Founder David McClellan
A California senior named Laura Francis lost $248,000 in a crypto romance scam. Social Catfish Founder David McClellan identified the scammer using new technology to track crypto wallets and has sent the information to law enforcement in the US and Nigeria.
A new study found California is the No. 1 most-scammed state in America with 67,095 victims losing $1.2 billion in 2021, up from $621 million in 2020. The average victim in the state lost a staggering $18,302 last year.
Nationally, a record $6.9 billion was lost to online scams in 2021, up from $3.5 billion in 2019. This shows losses have essentially doubled since COVID-19 began. The unprecedented number of people working, dating, and shopping online created a gold rush for scammers.
Social Catfish today released its second-annual study on the State of Internet Scams 2022 using data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC released in 2022.
Social Catfish also polled 3,047 romance scams victims from its reverse search user base. This marks the largest romance scam poll ever conducted.
The data shows people from all walks of life are being duped regardless of age, level of education and socio-economic factors.
Here are 3 Online Scam Trends to Watch Out For:
1) Most Romance Scams Victims Are College Educated: Despite public opinion that romance scam victims must be unintelligent, 75% of victims polled by Social Catfish have some college education and 13% earned graduate degrees. The FTC reported a record $547 million was lost to romance scams in 2021, up from $304 million.
What to Know: If they won’t meet in person or video chat and ask for money it is a scam. Even if you have a doctorate degree it can happen to you.
2) Tech-Savvy Teens Losing Money at Higher Rate Than Seniors: Victims under 20 have seen a 1125% increase in money lost to online scams in the last five years, the highest increase of any age group. FBI IC3 reports from 2017 and 2021. Moreover, 54% of U.S. households polled by Social Catfish do not monitor their children online.
What to Know: Adults with world experience and tech-savvy youth must work together to keep the family safe online.
3) Cryptocurrency Scams are Skyrocketing: Scammers are capitalizing on the rising interest in cryptocurrencies with fake investment scams. A record $1.6 billion was lost to Cryptocurrency scams in 2021, a nearly seven-fold increase from $246 million in 2020 per the FBI’s IC3. Scammers of all stripes often ask to be paid in crypto since it is hard to track.
What to Know: Do independent research before investing in cryptocurrency. Be on alert if a merchant asked to be paid in Bitcoin for a product or service.
