Georgia is ranked second highest in the country for total reports of the various types of fraud per 100,000 people, with a median $600 loss per report. Nationwide, Americans are also being targeted by phishing attacks in record numbers.
The APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report has been released for the first quarter of 2022, revealing the organization has observed 1,025,968 total phishing attacks this year — marking the worst quarter for phishing the APWG has seen.
The FTC said consumers also reported losing more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency to scams and fraud since 2021.
“Fraud reports suggest cryptocurrency is quickly becoming the payment of choice for many scammers, with about one out of every four dollars reported lost to fraud paid in cryptocurrency,” the FTC said in its report.
There are ways to protect yourself.
How to protect yourself
According to Georgia’s office of the attorney general, it is important to change your browser privacy settings to protect yourself from online tracking. The office suggested turning on your private browsing mode and decide what type of cookies you want to allow per website. Browser security settings are changed through varying steps, depending on the browser used.
If you suffer a data breach, the office suggested freezing your credit, monitor your bank accounts, cancel any cards or accounts that have been compromised, change your online login information, check your credit report, and visit identitytheft.gov to report the fraud.
For older adults who are worried about being targeted by scams, fraud and identity theft, Georgia’s office of the attorney general has issued a consumer protection guide, which can be found here.
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