Scammers are doing all they can to separate you from your money. Fortunately, there’s something you can do to educate yourself on the biggest scams happening where you live.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently shared some ways consumers can find out about crime trends and scams that are happening in their area. The information comes from the agency’s Consumer Sentinel, an investigative cyber tool that gives local law enforcement agencies access to millions of reports on things like identity theft, unwanted calls, fraud, scams and more.
What Are the Top Scams in Your State?
A key part of the tool is Tableau Public, a data visualization platform that shows areas of the United States affected by fraud and identity theft scams in interactive maps.
The site allows you to toggle between several tabs that show the following views:
- All reports by state
- Fraud by state
- Fraud by metro area
- ID theft by state
- ID theft by metro area
To see fraud and ID theft report statistics in your state, select the appropriate tabs above the map. When I clicked on fraud by state, it showed me the top scams by category. As you can see below, impostor scams are one of the top ruses in Georgia, which is where I live.
What Are the Top Scams in Your Metro Area?
Zoom in on the map to see details on the number of scams reported in your metro area. When I zoomed in on my location, I saw that the Atlanta metro area had a total of 71,877 fraud and identity theft…
