Coloradans scammed out of $ 187.6M in 2023

Scammers fleeced Coloradans out of a total of $ 187.6 million in 2023, according to a new report by the FBI’S Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Altogether, 11,475 people across the state reported being victimized, making Colorado seventh in the nation for the number of reports per capita.

The number of complaints in Colorado in 2023 was 195.2 per capita.

Washington, D. C., led the country with 555.1 complaints per capita.

While the number of Coloradans suffering losses last year was down from the 11,683 in 2022, the overall financial hit was up from the $ 178.3 reported that year.

The scams that netted the most money in Colorado in 2023 were investment f raud a t $ 60 million; business email compromise at $ 57 million; and tech support schemes at $ 23 million.

Nationally, the FBI’S Internet Crime Complaint Center fielded more t han 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $ 12.5 billion. C omplaints rose nearly 10% from 2022 and losses jumped 22%.

Swindles i nvolving c ryptocurrency are a major driver behind investment fraud, said Brian Blauser, a s upervisory s pecial agent with the FBI in Colorado. He said he talked to a local individual Monday who had lost $ 3.4 million in cryptocurrency- related fraud.

“It’s staggering a nd t he l oss amounts associated with the investment f raud c ategory as a whole are a staggering $ 4.5 billion nationwide,” Blauser said.

Scammers will use social media and text messages to lure people into investment ploys.

“The b ad g uys or t he s cammers will reach out and try to develop some kind of rapport or relationship with you,” Blauser said. “They’re really hoping for somebody to respond to them and then they’re just trying to further engage with you.”

The fraudsters will likely set up a website showing that a person is making great gains from their investments in things like digital currency, Blauser said.

Precautions people can take include contacting banks or other financial institutions d irectly rather than through phone numbers i n emails that are seeking money or action of some kind.

“Criminals continue to develop new tricks to defraud people, so think twice before clicking on a link and report suspicious activity to law enforcement,” FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said in a statement.