NJ Tops Ranking For Most Scams In U.S. Last Year, FBI Says

NEW JERSEY - Residents of the Garden State were scam victims more than nearly any other state in the U.S. last year, according to a new report released by the FBI.

Per the agency’s annual Internet Crime Report, over 12,000 New Jersey victims lost a collective $441.2 million from scams ranging from tech support to personal data breach to phishing. It’s a 55% increase from the $284.6 million in reported losses in 2022, the report reads.

Overall, New Jersey reported the fifth-greatest loss to scammers in 2023, behind New York ($750 million), Florida ($875 million), Texas ($1022 million) and California ($2,159 million). Nationwide, the FBI has reported a twofold increase in the number of complaints since 2019 and a fourfold increase in the amount of losses ($12.5 billion in 2023, up from $3.5 billion in 2019).

New Jersey also topped the list of the states with the most complaints of scams, with 12,253 complaints reported last year. That’s only behind 13 other states, with California, Texas, Florida, New York and Ohio taking the top five spots.

“Your reporting is critical for our efforts to pursue adversaries, share intelligence with our partners, and protect your fellow citizens,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Timothy Langan said in a statement. “Cybersecurity is the ultimate team sport, and we are in this fight together.”

The most common type of scam in 2023 was phishing/spoofing with 298,878 complaints; other common scams include extortion (48.223 complaints), non payment (50,523 complaints) and personal data breach (55,851 complaints).

Investment fraud was the costliest type of crime tracked by the FBI in 2023, with victims most likely to be between 30 to 49 years old. Senior citizens, however, accounted for more than half of reported tech scam losses. U.S. victims ages 60 and older reported losses of $3.4 billion in 2023, followed by $1.7 billion in losses reported by those ages 50 to 59.

You can read the full report here.