Dangerous scams: 10 schemes that hustled the most money from victims

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

By Ed Richter
Updated Nov 30, 2019
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The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 301,580 complaints with reported losses exceeding $1.4 billion in 2017.

The most prevalent crime types reported by victims were Non-Payment/Non-Delivery, Personal Data Breach, and Phishing. The top three crime types with the highest reported loss were Business Email Compromised, Confidence/Romance fraud, and Non-Payment/Non-Delivery.

JOURNAL-NEWS INVESTIGATES
The Journal-News investigated current trends in scams and the newest ways people can protect themselves for a report that will be published Sunday in the Journal-News and on journal-news.com.

Ohio ranked eighth in the number of crime victims with 8,157 and 14th in victim dollar losses with $30.6 million, according to the IC3.

Here are the top 10 scams based on victim losses as reported to FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center:

• Business email compromised/personal email account compromised - $676.1 million

• Confidence/Romance fraud: $211.3 million

• Nonpayment/nondelivery: $141.1 million

• Investment: $96.8 million

• Personal data breach: $77.1 million

• Identity theft: $66.8 million

• Corporate data breach: $60.9 million

• Advance fee: $57.8 million

• Credit card fraud: $57.2 million

• Real estate/rental: $56.2 million

About the Author

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Ed Richter has been a working journalist for 38 years, with the last 34 years working in various capacities covering Butler and Warren counties as a reporter and an editor. Richter covers local news and governments in Warren County focusing on Springboro, Lebanon, Franklin, Carlisle and Waynesville.