Utah’s Battle Against Scammers: Insights On The $55.6M Fraud Loss

Scammers around the world are getting smarter and smarter and Utah had its fair share of scamming troubles in 2024.  

If you’ve seen an uptick in scamming tactics recently, you’re not the only one. I keep getting a bunch of texts for “UPS” or even random numbers who are trying to goad me into action. It’s the worst. I’ve been so annoyed with all these new attempts that seeing who actually fell for these schemes has become an interest of mine.  

Now, this is not to shame anyone who did but just a look at how badly UT faired when it came to scams.  

The Lending Tree, a loan financing place, found that Utahns lost $55.6 million to financials scams in 2023. Ouch! This went up from $46.6 million Utahns lost in 2022.  

To add on to those numbers, 19,808 fraud reports were filled by Utahns in 2023. There was an average of $2,808 lost per fraud report.  

Nationwide, the numbers are bad too. For the first nine months of 2023, roughly $7 billion (about $22 per person in the US) was lost to fraud. One of the more common scams was imposter scams which made up 33.5% of fraud reports, The Lending Tree said. However, the highest money loss was through investment-related fraud.  

So, how do you counter these scams when new tactics pop up all the time? 

Well, for one, there are no government officials who will threaten legal action or arrest unless you pay up. That's a total scam. Also, it's good to check with actual parties if you have concerns but never send money somewhere you are unsure about.  

If someone randomly reaches out to you via phone, text, or social media. Do some background research!  

If there is any question about the legitimacy of someone, chances are it's a scam. Stay safe, Utah!