Criminals are posing as legitimate real estate agents to steal money from unsuspecting victims - and the gamble is paying off big time.

In April, NY Attorney General Letitia James announced a businessman in the Dominican Republic successfully scammed 24 New Yorkers with fraudulent real estate listings. The homes he listed either didn't exist or were sold to multiple buyers, allowing him to bilk millions.

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James urged New Yorkers to be aware of this rising scam and to be extra careful when buying a home abroad, especially if it is sight unseen.

Now cybercriminals are going after real estate agents. Using phishing or hacking attacks, they try stealing sensitive client information to learn what kind of homes their potential target would want to buy.

Data collection experts SOAX analyzed 2023 data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center on the number of victims and victim losses for real estate cyber crimes in America.

By looking  into the average amount of money lost to scammers per state, they were able to determine which were the worst affected. Surprisingly, Alabama was hit the most, with the average loss per real estate scam being $69,441, which is the highest of any state nationwide.

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The state itself reported  $5,346,973 in losses to this type of crime, and that there were 77 victims.

When it comes to New York, it seems residents are a little savvier - but not immune to these scammers' tactics. The Empire State had the 24th worst rate for cybercrime, with 537 victims losing, on average, $10,579. That amounts to $5,681.075 in total losses.

Read More: Dangerous Tracking Scam Targeting New York Cellphones

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum was Nebraska, which had the lowest real estate scam rate of all. The state had 34 reported victims, who lost about $34,444 in all - which averages to each person losing about $1,103 each.

In all, real estate scams stole $12.5 billion from Americans last year and over 521,000 complaints were registered with the Crime Complaint Center.

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hikesterson from Getty Images Pro
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Said AG James, "New Yorkers should always be suspicious of speculative real estate deals where they are asked to buy property sight unseen. Purchasing real estate abroad can be complicated and expensive, and individuals should take precautions to ensure they are working with legitimate brokers."

The easiest way to avoid a scam is hitting the pause button when things seem too good to be true - because they probably are.

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