The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Ohioans lost millions to scammers in 2016
The most common fraud complaint was debt collection
There were 88,222 identity theft, fraud and other consumer complaints registered in Ohio last year.
The Cleveland Better Business Bureau recently shared the story of a Middlefield woman who was scammed out of $70,000 after thinking she received a government grant.
While the amount of money the woman lost might be extreme, scams like these are common and Ohioans lost millions of dollars to scammers in 2016.
According to the Consumer Sentinel Network, there were 88,222 identity theft, fraud and other consumer complaints registered in Ohio last year.
CSN is a “secure online database of millions of consumer complaints available only to law enforcement.” It stores complaints from the Federal Trade Commission as well as those filed with state law enforcement organizations, including the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. CSN also logs complaints from the IRS, Better Business Bureau, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and National Consumers League, among others.
Of the 88,222 consumer complaints in Ohio last year, 34,529 were fraud complaints. Just under half the people who logged complaints reported an amount paid. The average amount paid was $952, totaling $15,997,966 lost to scammers.
The most common fraud complaint reported by Ohioans was debt collection, which made up 35 percent of the report. After that, impostor scams; telephone and mobile services scams; prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; and bank and lenders scams were the most common.
Employment or tax-related fraud was the most common type of identity theft in the state. Following that were credit card fraud; phone or utilities fraud; bank fraud; and loan or lease fraud.
Nationwide, Ohio had the 17th most fraud/other complaints in 2016, according to the CSN report. Ohio ranked 27th in identity theft complaints.
The Cleveland-Elyria Metro area logged the most complaints in Ohio for both fraud/other complaints and identity theft complaints.
The 9,368 fraud/other complaints registered in the metro area ranked 65th nationally for metro areas. The 2,486 identity theft complaints ranked 79th.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has
Nationwide, Ohio had the 17th most fraud/ other complaints in 2016, according to the CSN report. Ohio ranked 27th in identity theft complaints.
launched a website called Ohioprotects.org that allows residents to learn about fraud, research businesses and file complaints.
Ohioprotects.org was launched in June 2016.
“We want to help Ohioans be more aware of how scams are often not all that obvious at first, and to give them tools to find out more information about how the Ohio Attorney General’s Office can help,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a June statement announcing the debut of the site.
The Cleveland Better Business Bureau has an
accredited business directory on its website. The directory covers businesses in Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Lorain and Ashtabula counties.
CSN reported 3 million complaints nationwide in 2016.
Similar to Ohio, debt collection fraud was the most common type of complaint nationally. Impostor scams were next, followed by identity theft complaints. Telephone and mobile service scam complaints and banks and lenders scams rounded out the Top 5
Impostor scams, which made up 13 percent of the complaints, moved up to second in 2016 because of an increase in complaints about government impostors as well as a decrease in Identity theft complaints according to the CSN report.
More than three-quarters of scammers initially contacted their victims via phone. Email was the second most common method at 8 percent, followed by websites at 6 percent.
The Middlefield woman who was scammed out of $70,000 started with a message received by a Facebook friend.
The most common way consumers paid scammers was through wire transfer (this was the method used against the Middlefield woman). Other popular payment methods (though far less common than wire transfers, which represented 58 percent) were credit cards, bank account debit and prepaid cards.
Overall, there were slightly fewer complaints reported in 2016 than 2015. There were 3,050,374 complaints in 2016, down from 3,140,803 the year prior. A total of 2,633,697 complaints were reported in 2014.