Houston is a city of achievements—we’re the home of the best college investment in Texas, one of the top locales for digital nomads, and our medical center is recognized across the world. But now there’s a new ranking to add to the books, and it’s not worth bragging over.
A recent study conducted by Social Catfish, a company that aids citizens in avoiding online scams, found that the Lone Star State ranked second highest in the nation for the total number of scam victims in 2021, totaling 41,148 people who lost an average of $14,732. Overall, Texas lost $606,179,646, trailing California’s no.1 spot, which saw 67,095 victims lose $1.2 billion to financial scams.
The study, utilized data from recent reports made by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the Federal Trade Commission to analyze the different and most common methods of scammers, general demographics of scam victims, and how social and political factors have affected the trends and general increase of online scams over the last several years.
As a result, online scams are on the rise as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase of digital resources people have utilized more frequently since it began: online shopping, social media and dating apps, and digital banking.
Most Common Types of Scams
Cryptocurrency and investment scams saw the largest annual increase between 2020-2021, while identity theft and imposter scams were reported most frequently across the country…
