Internet Scams See Uptick In All But 1 State Amid Pandemic

ACROSS AMERICA — Falling victim to an internet scam is affecting more people across America every year, with the coronavirus pandemic apparently exacerbating the problem nationwide.

The lost dollars due to internet scams in all 50 states accounted for $7 billion in 2020, up from $5.1 billion lost nationally in 2019, according to Comparitech, a technology research company that analyzed data from the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, Finance Crimes Enforcement Network and Internet Crime Complaint Center.

The increase in Americans who reported online scams went from 3.8 million to 4.77 million from 2019 to 2020 — a 25 percent increase, according to Comparitech.

“Scammers are good at what they do, or else they wouldn’t be scammers,” Nichole Thomas, a BBB spokeswoman who works out of the Northern Indiana office in Fort Wayne, Indiana, told Patch. “When they find something that works, they really hone in on that.”

What had worked for years — scamming older Americans — shifted a bit as the pandemic brought more non-retired people home for the day, Thomas noted. Children were among the victim groups with the biggest increase in internet scams amid the pandemic, a 153 percent uptick from 1,119 to 2,831 nationally, according to Comparitech.

“Students had unfettered access to the internet, with no teachers watching over their shoulder,” Thomas said. “Kids are mostly less scam-educated because they are so young, and more likely to think they won’t be scammed because they grew up in the digital age. But now, scammers are growing up in the digital age, too.”

Related On Patch: How To Spot An Internet Scam

Older adults, traditionally the age target for scammers, are still targeted, but “not in a way that increases their susceptibility,” Thomas said, because retired people were often home with access to a computer before the pandemic.

Identity theft, online shopping, health care and employment or business-related scams were the fraud types that jumped the most from 2019 to 2020 nationally, Comparitech found.

The pandemic didn’t change the state where people reported scams the most frequently. Delaware had the most scams reported per 1,000 people in 2019 and 2020, increasing from 53.96 to 58.41.

Virginia was the only state that actually saw a decrease in the number of scams reported, and money lost, from 2019 to 2020. Four percent fewer victims in Old Dominion were reported during the year of the pandemic, as the state's online scam victim total dropped from 203,577 to 194,755.

Scam numbers only convey a portion of the people getting ripped off online, reporting agencies including the BBB have long said. In cases in which a high dollar number is involved, victims are especially reluctant to report the crime, Thomas said.

“They are embarrassed,” she said, estimating that the BBB only receives reports from about 10 percent of scam victims. “People can become very dicey when they lose money.”

The more that people report scams, Thomas said, the better chance that others will have of avoiding those scams.

“It is never a victim’s fault that they were scammed," she said. "It’s always the scammer’s fault.”