Did you know Which U.S. Cities Are Seeing the Fastest Rise in Digital Crime and Fraud Reports?

 

According to the FTC, 2.5 million Americans became victims of fraud in 2023, losing about $10 billion online. In response to this alarming trend, All About Cookies conducted a survey to identify which U.S. cities have the highest rates of online scam, based on fraud and identity theft reports. They gave scores from 1-100, with 100 being the worst score and it was also observed that most scams happen in the cities which have aging populations and warm climates. Miami was the most scammiest city in the US with score of 72.0. There were 1,775 average fraud reports per 100k population, with 162 spam call complaints within the same range.

Followed by Miami is Las Vegas, with 200 spam calls reported per 100k and 488 identity theft reports per 100k as well. The third scammiest city in the US is Orlando (1,602 fraud reports and 167 spam call complaints per 100k). Tampa has the fourth highest scam rate in the country with 1,623 fraud reports per 100k. Another city in the top five scammiest city in the US is Atlanta which had 1,988 fraud reports per 100k, with highest number of robocalls (4,133) received per person. There was a 29% decrease in identity theft reports in Atlanta and that's why it isn't ranked higher. Other top ten scammiest cities in the US include San Diego, Tallahassee, Tucson, Hartford and Dallas. Most of the cities with highest rates of scam and identity theft are from Florida.

All About Cookies also ranked the safest cities in America for digital crime, with Amarillo (18.6 score) topping the list. It also had a 21% decrease in identity theft reports which helped a lot in its ranking. Other safest cities in the US for digital media are Fort Wayne, Wichita, Nashville and Kansas City. Fort Wayne also saw a 14% decline in fraud reports while Kansas City has the lowest fraud reports and robocall rates in the country. On the other hand, Hartford saw a 49% increase in identity theft reports. Des Moines saw the second biggest increase in identity theft reports (40%) while Boston saw the third biggest increase (34%). Other cities in the US where identity theft is rising quickly are Omaha, Lincoln and Denver. Cities like Little Rock, Cincinnati, Providence and Portland are also seeing increases of 15%-13% in identity theft reports.