We all can recognize things, like each other, or real talent, or a good deal, or where to turn to get where we want to go, or when danger approaches.
And there are things we “hardly recognize,” like a classmate at our 50th reunion.
But for way too many of us, there is one thing we struggle to recognize all too often — a scam.
Webster defines “scam” as “a dishonest scheme; a fraud.”
And these scams are out there, preying on unsuspecting people who for some reason are too trusting and refuse to recognize the danger ahead, despite many signals flashing before them.
A new study on the website — socialcatfish.com — offers an unprecedented look at the growing online scam crisis in America as a record $6.9 billion was lost to online scams in 2021 — up from $3.5 billion in 2019.
The amount lost has nearly doubled since the start of the global pandemic.
• You can read the entire study at — https://socialcatfish.com/scamfish/state-of-internet-scams-2022/
According to the study, Pennsylvania is the No. 5 most-scammed state with 17,262 victims losing $207 million in 2021 — an increase from $109 million in 2020. The average victim in the state lost a staggering $11,991 last year, the study found.
A news release from socialcatfish.com stated that “romance, cryptocurrency, and investment scams are skyrocketing and are highly sophisticated; highly educated people as well as large corporations are increasingly being scammed; and teens are now losing money at a higher rate than any other age group including seniors.”
Social Catfish 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, and a poll of 3,047 romance scams victims who are among the company’s reverse search users.
Here are some of the study’s key finding:
• Money lost to online scams has doubled since COVID-19: A record $6.9 billion was lost in 2021, up from $3.5 billion in 2019 per the FBI IC3.
• 75% of romance scams victims are college educated: There is a misconception victims must be unintelligent. However, 2,305 of the 3,074 victims polled (75%) have some college education and 13% earned graduate degrees.
• Middle and lower class Americans make up 84% of romance scam victims: The poll found 44% of romance scam victims make less than $100,000 and an additional 40% make less than $40,000 per year. In total, 84% earn less than $100,000.
• Tech-savvy teens see largest increase in money lost: Victims under 20 saw a 1,125% increase in money lost to online scams in the last five years — the highest increase of any age group per FBI IC3 reports from 2017 and 2021. Seniors saw a 390% increase during this period.
• Cryptocurrency scams are skyrocketing: Scammers hit the jackpot with fake crypto 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. Beware that scammers of all stripes often ask to be paid in crypto. Consider it a big red flag.
5 Tips to avoid online scams
• Do not give money to anyone you have never met in person.
• Do not give out personal information if you have never met in person
• Perform a reverse search using photos, emails, phone numbers and addresses to verify if the person or entity you are speaking to online is who they say they are.
• Big red flags include poor grammar, refusing to video chat, being in the military, working overseas, asking to be paid in gift cards or cryptocurrency.
• Use a password manager to create many passwords so if one has been compromised the rest of your accounts are protected.
The best protection is to just not even consider engaging these scammers in conversation.
The old saying is if appears to be too good to be true, then it can’t be true.
Words to live by.