SEATTLE, WA (352today.com) – A new report from online security resource PasswordManager.com finds Florida is one of the riskiest states in the nation when it comes to exposure to Valentine’s Day scams.
The report assessed four types of online scams that relate to how people spend and interact around Valentine’s Day: romance scams, travel scams, online shopping scams and business impostor scams. Clearly romance, travel and online shopping scams, always prevalent online, can be focused on Valentine’s Day habits, but so can business impostor scams, in which bad actors impersonate representatives from banks, companies and credit card issuers while trying to steal personal, financial and account information.
“Florida’s risk is driven by a heavy mix of travel-related fraud and high romance-scam losses,” the report said. “For Valentine’s Day, scammers can exploit getaway planning with fake rentals and bogus ‘deal’ offers, while romance scammers use the holiday to escalate trust and pressure victims into sending money.”
The breakdown:
- Romance scams: 142 reports per million population, total loss $87,955,332
- Travel scams: 131 reports per million population, total loss $8,255,332
- Online shopping scams: 857 reports per million population, total loss $2,428,736
- Business imposter scams: 998 reports per million population, total loss $7,548,135
Florida ranked third in the nation for riskiness during the Valentine’s season, coming in just behind Nevada and Arizona. Louisiana, Mississippi and North Dakota were the states named least risky with regard to these types of scams.
As always, online shoppers are advised to be diligent, use complex passwords and change them often, and never click on a link that seems suspicious, whether it appears to be from a trusted source or not.