Pennsylvania scam losses tripled over 4-year period

More frequent reports concerning cyber attacks have made people increasingly aware of protecting their private data.

Pennsylvanians should take particular precaution, as Keystone State residents’s losses to scams have tripled over the past four years. The Bucks County Courier Times reports people living in Pennsylvania lost roughly $224.2 million to fraud and identity theft in 2023, according from the Federal Trade Commission’s latest Consumer Sentinel Report.

That, adds the publication, is over three times the amount of such theft reported in 2019, and places Pennsylvania in eighth with regard to states who notified authorities of fraud and other related activities in the United States.

The FTC report highlights how 21% of scams in Pennsylvania were related to identity theft. Pennsylvanians, on average, lost a total of $440 each.

In metro areas, Philadelphia ranked seventh nationally for the most scams reported.

However, Georgia topped the list as the state with the most scams reported in 2023. Ditto for Sebastian-Vero Beach, Fla., as far as metro areas go.

The FTC report additionally states how identify theft alerts were up by a 82% nationwide, and that over $2.7 billion was lost as a whole.

The report reveals younger people tend to lose money to fraud more often than older people. However, the elderly lost higher amounts when they did fall victim to scams.

Experian advises doing things such as developing good online security habits as well as avoiding storing your credit card information on shopping website as a means to protect yourself from fraud.