These Fraud Types Are Scamming the Most Money from New Yorkers

What scam are you most likely to fall for in New York?

A new survey ranked the most common and most successful types of fraud that swindled millions from state residents so far this year.

The survey was conducted by Investor Loss Center, a team of investment fraud lawyers.

Using data from the Federal Trade Commission, the team was able to determine how many fraud and related fraudulent crime reports were made in the first 3 quarters of the year.

Read More: Blackmail, Impersonation Scams Terrorizing Central New York

The report determined the top 10 most prevalent types of crime in New York State.

1. Imposter scams
2. Online shopping and negative reviews
3. Internet services
4. Health Care
5. Business and job opportunities
6. Telephone and mobile service
7. Privacy, data security, and cyber threat
8. Investment related
9. Travel, vacation and timeshare plans
10. Prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries

While these crimes are familiar, it's amazing just how many people they duped so far this year.

Imposter scams, where scammers pretend to be someone of authority to scare or intimidate their target, were reported 27,191 times this year alone

Online shopping scams, where victims come across a sale that really is too good to be true, tricked 14,019 people.

Internet service scams, where con artists go door to door to trick people into signing up for a presumably much better deal, were reported 6,589 time so far this year,

Health care scams, where people are provided fake services or pay for unnecessary treatments, were reported 4,570 times while phony job opportunities tricked 4,369 New Yorkers.

Read More: Dangerous Job Offer Scam Tricking New York College Grads

Residents are reminded its not a crime to scrutinize offers or deals that seemingly fall into one's lap.

Additionally, when a proposal sounds too good to be true - it probably is.

WIBX's Bill Keeler was approached by one of these dangerous scams, where he was tricked into believing his son qualified for student loan forgiveness.

He warned, "I can tell you first hand, the scammers are out in full-force and they're very good."

Since then, my son has had to change his accounts and he enrolled in Lifelock. We're already Lifelock members, but we had to close out our checking account and open a new one (which is a major pain as you might expect).

The best thing one can do is to trust their gut and if something feels off, you can always pump the brake and say no to making an immediate decision.

If your credit card company calls you, you can always hang up when something doesn't feel right, and call the number on the back of your card - because you know you're reaching the right people.

In all, the age of scammers is seeing an evolution in their tactics and they seemingly are getting better at knowing what buttons to press to make a victim fold.

Stay vigilant and stay informed. That is the best way to protect yourself.

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