Scammer Central: Arizona Ranks Sixth Worst State for Fraud

A new study has announced the areas hit the hardest by fraud in the period between Q2 2023 and Q1 2024. Residents in Arizona reported 1,215 cases per 100,000 people – a 22% increase above average. Arizona was found to be the sixth hardest-hit state, with 90,254 cases reported in the period.

The study, conducted by injury lawyers Bader Scott, examined the number of fraud cases reported in each state according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) between April 2023 and March 2024. The data was then scaled against each state’s population to ensure fair comparisons among states and investigate the areas with the highest volume per 100,000 residents.

The data revealed that Georgia was the number one state suffering from the highest rates of fraud. In the assessed period, there were over 177,000 reports filed, resulting in a rate of 1,605 cases per 100,000 residents – a 62% rise above the national average (988 per 100,000).

Georgia has frequently ranked highly in the past for fraud incidents, being named as the state with the highest rate of consumer fraud in 2022. At the time, this rate was just 1,550 per 100,000. In the first quarter of 2024, the FTC reported over 4,300 reports of imposter scams with other top scams relating to online shopping, internet service fraud and business and job opportunities.

Second worst off is Georgia’s neighbor Florida, which saw a rate of 1,589 cases per 100,000 people. Florida’s residents reported over 359,300 incidents in this period and have consistently ranked in the top four places worst hit over the last five years. As of the first three months of this year, Florida residents have already lost $171.1 million to fraudsters.

The FTC’s report on 2024 data so far names imposter scams as the most common scam type here, with online shopping and negative reviews coming in second. In the first quarter of 2024, the FTC has reported over 32,000 incidents of all types of scams, a worrying figure.

Nevada ranks in third place, with a rate of 1,532 reports per 100,000 residents. In the period measured, there were over 48,900 cases. At the end of the first quarter, the FTC reported over 1,600 imposter crime complaints.

As of the first quarter this year, there have been over 4,600 fraud reports with a total of $35.9 million lost so far. Other common ways to be targeted include investment scams, cyber threats and telephone and mobile texts or calls.

In fourth place, with a rate of 1,486 reports per 100,000 residents, is Delaware. For such a small population, this figure is a concerning 50% above the average. According to the FTC’s report on the first quarter of the year, residents here have already lost $6.3 million to fraud. Over the time frame analyzed, there were over 15,300 cases of fraud reported.

As with most states, the most common type of scam is imposter fraud. As for other kinds, the FTC has reported nearly 50 scams relating to travel, vacation and timeshare plans that occurred in the first quarter of this year, highlighting this as the eighth most common scam in-state.

Ranking fifth is Maryland. Here, there are approximately 1,428 reports per 100,000 residents – 44% above the national average. Within the assessed period, there were over 88,200 instances reported.

Within the top ten types, mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management fraud rank high in Maryland. This year, this kind has already been reported 149 times according to the latest data from the FTC. Imposter scams have been reported over 3,400 times so far, and online shopping fraud is the second most common.

Top 10 most scammed states, ranked

Rank	State	Fraud Reports (Q2 2023 – Q1 2024)	Fraud Reports per 100,000 People
1	Georgia	177,035	1,605
2	Florida	359,322	1,589
3	Nevada	48,949	1,532
4	Delaware	15,336	1,486
5	Maryland	88,249	1,428
6	Arizona	90,254	1,215
7	Pennsylvania	156,014	1,204
8	Illinois	150,612	1,200
9	South Carolina	62,899	1,171
10	New Jersey	108,593	1,169

Continuing the list of states worst affected is Arizona, which saw 1,215 fraud reports per 100,000 residents across the period. In total, more than 90,200 cases were reported, and this year’s data highlights health care scams, prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries and travel fraud as areas for locals to be extra aware of. In the first quarter, the state saw $61.6 million lost to fraud.

In seventh place is Pennsylvania, where there were over 156,000 cases from Q2 2023 – Q1 2024, resulting in a rate of 1,204 reports per 100,000 people. In the first quarter of the year, the FTC has reported over 16,000 complaints, with 6,000 imposter scams included in this figure.

Illinois takes eighth place as most targeted, after seeing a rate of 1,200 cases per 100,000 residents over the time period. The state is unfortunately not too far behind Pennsylvania in that the latest FTC data reported over 14,600 issues in data from the first quarter of the year, and a total of over 150,600 from April 2023 to March 2024.

Ranking ninth worst off is South Carolina, which saw 1,171 incidents per 100,000 people. Online shopping frauds are the second most common type of report here, with over 1,000 already being reported this year. As of the first quarter, the FTC reported 6,500 fraud reports and the state’s residents have seen $21.9 million lost. Overall, there were nearly 62,900 cases reported in the year assessed.

Rounding off the list, New Jersey takes tenth place. Here, the rate sits 18% above the average at 1,169 cases per 100,000 residents. New Jersey’s residents reported over 108,500 cases of fraud in the period assessed, with the FTC reporting areas with the highest emerging reports include investment frauds, cyber threats and mortgage foreclosure relief and debt management.

On the opposite end of the study, South Dakota was revealed as the state with the lowest number of fraud reports in the period assessed. The rate of fraud reports per 100,000 residents sits as just 572, a rate 42% below average, with more than 5,200 total instances. In the first quarter of the year, there were only 790 fraud reports, though this totaled $6.4 million in total losses.

Following them is their neighbor North Dakota, which ranks as second least likely to have experienced fraud in the study. The rate for the state sat at 607 cases per 100,000 residents with a total figure of over 4,700 cases in the time assessed. However, the figures from the first quarter of the year sit at a loss of $3.7 million.

Iowa ranks third with the next lowest rate of reports which sits at 629 per 100,000 residents. For the data so far this year, there have been over 1,000 imposter scams reported with other common types including data security and cyber threats alongside business and job opportunities. Overall, there were over 20,100 reports made to the FTC.

The state with the fourth lowest rates was Idaho, which saw 14,600 reports in the period assessed, resulting in a rate of 744 incidents per 100,000 people. The FTC’s data reported a loss of $9.7 million due to fraud in the first quarter of this year, which is a small sum in comparison to those with much higher rates. So far, Idaho has seen just 810 imposter scams, between January and March this year, with all fraud reports totaling just over 2,100 overall.

Unlike its other Southern neighbors, Kentucky ranks fifth lowest. The rate here sits at 750 reports per 100,000 residents. In the period assessed, Kentucky saw just under 34,000 incidents reported to the FTC, but when scaled against the population of the state this figure sits relatively low. Imposter scams here have so far totaled just under 1,600 cases in the first few months of this year, with online shopping scams named the second most reported type of fraud.

Top 10 states with the lowest rates of fraud, ranked

Rank	State	Fraud Reports (Q2 2023 – Q1 2024)	Fraud Reports per 100,000 People
1	South Dakota	5,258	572
2	North Dakota	4,756	607
3	Iowa	20,157	629
4	Idaho	14,609	744
5	Kentucky	33,959	750
6	Montana	8,502	751
7	Kansas	22,382	761
8	Oklahoma	31,085	767
9	West Virginia	13,621	770
10	Wyoming	4,537	777

Ranking sixth lowest in America is Montana, with a rate of 751 reports per 100,000 people. A total figure of just over 8,500 instances were reported in the time frame. Montana’s residents have reported only 512 imposter scams in the first quarter this year, with a total loss of $3.7 million to all scams in this period.

Kansas comes in seventh place, with just 761 reports per 100,000 residents – a 22% decrease from the national average. Here, there were around 22,300 reports of fraud, but so far this year the FTC has noted total losses of only $10.1 million in the first quarter.

Next in line, Oklahoma comes in eighth place. Here, there were 767 reports per 100,000 people as of the data assessed, with the FTC reporting this year just 3,700 cases so far between January to March. Despite this, scams revolving around health care, lotteries and investment are popular in the state, and there was an overall total of 31,000 reports filed with the FTC over the time period.

In ninth place is West Virginia. The state saw over 13,600 fraud reports in the period assessed, yet so far this year the figure sits at around 1,700 total complaints. West Virginia’s rate sat at 770 reports per 100,000 people.

Lastly, finishing the list in tenth place is Wyoming which saw a rate of 777 reports per 100,000 people. The state has one of the lowest numbers of fraud reports in Q1 of 2024, with just 713 incidents and a relatively low figure of $2.8 million being lost so far. In total, there were more than 4,500 cases reported last year.

“Each year, the US suffers losses of billions of dollars because of fraud, so it is important to remain aware of the diverse ways scammers can target you and your loved ones,” said Seth Bader from Bader Scott. “A few factors contribute to why certain areas are worse off than others on this list. For example, economic vulnerability can play a part. Where people are more financially insecure, the lure of scams supposedly delivering high returns can seem more promising. Additionally, regions with older populations can face a larger number of cases as technology can be harder for older adults to navigate. The FTC reported a total of 2.6 million fraud reports in 2023, with an estimated $10 billion lost – an extra $1 billion in comparison to 2022. These figures are worrying, especially given that fraudsters have easy access to people now as they are targeting social media users meaning many more people are subject to their scams.”