More people in Texas are being scammed on the internet than any other state except for California, according to a new study by Social Catfish. A whopping $606,179,646 have been stolen from a total of 41,148 Texas residents. The average theft from each victim is approximately $18,302, which is nothing to bat an eye at.
Moreover, the amount of money stolen by online scammers has doubled in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, $3.5 billion was stolen online. In 2021, that number jumped to a staggering 6.9 billion.
A significant portion of online money scams often seen in the United States are what you would call ‘romance scams’. Those can happen pretty easily. Someone takes advantage of a person’s loneliness and cons them into falling in love with them and sending them money. You might think that only stupid people are fooled into falling for those scams, but studies show that up 75% of the victims are actually college educated. It can happen to anyone, and 84% of romance scam victims make less than $100,000. It makes it all the eviler when you realize that the majority of people that are stolen from are not even wealthy, to begin with. They are simply far too trusting.
Tech-savvy teenagers have also been targeted even more by online scammers. Between 2017 and 2021, high school seniors saw a 390% increase in scams. It might be a good idea to talk to your teenagers about online safety, especially if any of your credit cards are attached to their…
