The most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state
Caroline Delbert
•
Sep 15, 2021
Americans reported losing more than $4.2 billion to cybercrime in 2020. Cybercrime is everywhere, partly because many of us now carry computers with us almost all the time. These crimes range from real estate fraud to refusing to pay for eBay items, from fake online romances to massive data breaches. The states all have legislation related to computer crimes, but the FBI handles the most complaints because of the federal or even international nature of many cybercrimes. These crimes cross state and national borders easily due to the internet.
Using data from the FBI’s Internet Complaints Center (IC3) 2020 Internet Crime Report, Twingate reports on the most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state in 2020 broken down by crime type and the loss reported by the victim. Crimes were ranked based on the total reported loss by all victims, though the reported loss per victim is also included. According to the report, in 2020, the IC3 received 105,301 complaints from victims over 60 with total losses in excess of $966 million.
Read on to see the most damaging cybercrimes in your state, along with quick definitions and additional facts about those crimes. The best way to prevent cybercrime is to be an informed, safe internet user.
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Alabama
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,747,390
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $76,801
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,999,229
Victim count: 226
Average loss per victim: $22,120
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,026,393
Victim count: 89
Average loss per victim: $22,768
Alabama has an extensive law against computer crime, but many cybercrimes fall into the area of social engineering, a term that suggests using human contact to trick others into offering information. This is true for romance cybercrime, where a user is catfished by a fraudster.
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Alaska
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,770,348
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $36,938
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,672,178
Victim count: 92
Average loss per victim: $18,176
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $532,111
Victim count: 62
Average loss per victim: $8,582
In Alaska, business email compromise or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) is as big a problem as it is everywhere. In this attack, users are often phished using compromised links. Once they click or even share passwords, hackers are able to take over their accounts.
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Arizona
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $30,563,349
Victim count: 365
Average loss per victim: $83,735
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,068,910
Victim count: 559
Average loss per victim: $21,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,737,849
Victim count: 435
Average loss per victim: $13,190
Arizona has an extensive computer crimes law that has been amended to include even more kinds of offenses over time. The third-most-common crime type is tech support monetary loss, which can involve giving remote access to a hacker. This type can even include people who pretend to be tech support in person and gain access that way.
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Arkansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,667,334
Victim count: 87
Average loss per victim: $111,119
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,816,994
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $12,195
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,149,209
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $32,835
Arkansas’ detailed computer crime law includes a full glossary of terms and extensive definitions of each level of misdemeanor and felony. The state’s third-most-damaging crime type, investment loss, includes fraudulent opportunities to invest in real estate or the stock market.
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California
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $219,121,752
Victim count: 2,924
Average loss per victim: $74,939
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $120,492,182
Victim count: 3,110
Average loss per victim: $38,743
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $65,674,226
Victim count: 1,026
Average loss per victim: $64,010
In California, the first small computer offense can come with up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine. The business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) takes over user access, and from there, the hacker can send a new batch of phishing messages to the user’s entire address book.
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Colorado
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $48,491,996
Victim count: 495
Average loss per victim: $97,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,975,365
Victim count: 514
Average loss per victim: $34,972
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,802,982
Victim count: 439
Average loss per victim: $26,886
In Colorado, losses of at least $2,000 turn a computer crime into a felony. Spoofing, the state’s second-most-damaging computer crime, involves pretending to be an email address from someplace credible like a bank. From there, the hackers may ask for money and then steal the money as well as the financial information.
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Connecticut
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,910,309
Victim count: 269
Average loss per victim: $85,168.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,630,798
Victim count: 199
Average loss per victim: $28,295
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,889,909
Victim count: 223
Average loss per victim: $17,444
In Connecticut, destroying computer equipment itself is covered under the state’s extensive computer crimes law. If someone lied to gain access to a computer and then destroyed it, that would likely be a tech support loss.
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Delaware
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,641,363
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $39,423
#2 Most damaging crime type: Phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $937,258
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $12,497
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $904,126
Victim count: 9
Average loss per victim: $100,458
Delaware’s most damaging crimes include monetary loss from a corporate data breach—where huge lists of consumer information are compromised, often including unprotected financial details. In this case, the crime starts by hacking the list in the first place. After that, the criminals have reams of new data to try to use for fraudulent purchases and more.
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District of Columbia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,925,252
Victim count: 143
Average loss per victim: $83,393
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,131,734
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $44,109
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,092,723
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $22,909
It’s no surprise that Washington D.C.’s computer crimes law specifically lists out national security information as an item of interest. Business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC) also has special freight in a city where so much of the nation’s vital government business is done.
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Florida
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $115,001,364
Victim count: 1,381
Average loss per victim: $83,274
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,027,595
Victim count: 6,334
Average loss per victim: $6,635
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $40,173,934
Victim count: 1,603
Average loss per victim: $25,062
Florida’s computer crimes law includes a special section prohibiting the theft or other unauthorized use of public utilities. The state’s second-most-damaging crime type, identity theft, is a wide category that can start when someone’s Social Security number leaks from a compromised corporate network.
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Georgia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $34,575,245
Victim count: 476
Average loss per victim: $72,637
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,182,112
Victim count: 2,975
Average loss per victim: $4,431
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,432,298
Victim count: 721
Average loss per victim: $15,856
In Georgia, the second-most-damaging crime type is non-payment or non-delivery loss. This type is common on sites like eBay, where users may win auctions for valuable collectibles, but use fraudulent information to temporarily pay for them, for example.
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Hawaii
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,948,292
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $58,930
#2 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,282,801
Victim count: 72
Average loss per victim: $31,706
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,810,905
Victim count: 109
Average loss per victim: $16,614
In Hawaii, accessing a computer with intent to steal something is immediately a felony. With nearly $60,000 per victim lost in business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC), these are not trifling amounts to be defrauded.
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Idaho
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,032,789
Victim count: 78
Average loss per victim: $38,882
#2 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,390,809
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $88,548
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,126,196
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,355
Idaho’s forward-looking computer crimes law dates back to 1984, before many users even had computers for home use. Romance fraud, the third-most-damaging crime type in the state, is overall the top form of computer fraud loss in the nation.
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Illinois
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $88,804,328
Victim count: 735
Average loss per victim: $120,822
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,036,350
Victim count: 688
Average loss per victim: $20,402
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,099,966
Victim count: 163
Average loss per victim: $55,828
In Illinois, a high number of cyber crime victims can be expected because there are a large number of companies based in the populous state. In 2020, a data breach in the state’s unemployment system led to a huge class action lawsuit by more than 32,000 unemployment applicants who had personal information compromised.
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Indiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $19,593,072
Victim count: 196
Average loss per victim: $99,965
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,180,026
Victim count: 332
Average loss per victim: $12,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,595,167
Victim count: 133
Average loss per victim: $19,513
In Indiana, a 2021 data breach at the state’s Department of Health targeted contact-tracing data associated with the pandemic. The breach was by a company that apparently finds vulnerabilities as a way to drum up payments.
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Iowa
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,681,056
Victim count: 154
Average loss per victim: $56,370
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,507,557
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $4,858
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,281,307
Victim count: 145
Average loss per victim: $22,630
Iowa’s most damaging crime type, business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC), found the spotlight in 2018. That year, a data breach targeted the contact and health information of 1.4 million users of a particular health system.
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Kansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,030,047
Victim count: 127
Average loss per victim: $63,229
#2 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,879,505
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $242,469
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,186,463
Victim count: 136
Average loss per victim: $16,077
State laws cover individual states when they’re part of federal or even international data breaches. In 2019, Equifax paid more than $700 million to settle over a breach that affected the people of Kansas.
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Kentucky
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,209,703
Victim count: 104
Average loss per victim: $30,863
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,471,145
Victim count: 174
Average loss per victim: $14,202
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,645,925
Victim count: 211
Average loss per victim: $7,801
In Kentucky, seven separate statutes cover the huge area of computer crimes. Identity theft, the state’s third-most-damaging crime type, is an umbrella that covers a variety of methods of defrauding computer users. The ultimate goal is to be able to access their identifying information like Social Security numbers.
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Louisiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,575,148
Victim count: 141
Average loss per victim: $53,724
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,221,414
Victim count: 228
Average loss per victim: $31,673
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,942,669
Victim count: 1,184
Average loss per victim: $2,485
A Louisiana hospital system had its patient data breached in 2020. That attack targeted one email address and then extracted information from the confidential messages it contained.
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Maine
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,828,104
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $42,211
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,514,636
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $26,573
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,257,930
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $17,717
In Maine, the third-most-damaging crime type is the real estate or rental monetary loss. In this category of crime, users may put down payments or rental deposits on properties that don’t exist or were never available.
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Maryland
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,461,793
Victim count: 449
Average loss per victim: $50,026
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,128,118
Victim count: 405
Average loss per victim: $32,415
#3 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,324,441
Victim count: 278
Average loss per victim: $22,750
Maryland’s third-most damaging crime type is government impersonation. In this type of crime, a hacker pretends to be a government official trying to collect money, for example, by asking the user to pay an outstanding tax bill.
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Massachusetts
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $55,352,075
Victim count: 532
Average loss per victim: $104,045
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,363,833
Victim count: 369
Average loss per victim: $22,666
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,006,260
Victim count: 361
Average loss per victim: $22,178
Massachusetts’ third-most-damaging crime type is the confidence fraud or romance scam. The romance scam in particular has doubled in reports nationwide between 2015 and 2018.
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Michigan
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $28,616,190
Victim count: 572
Average loss per victim: $50,028
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,366,450
Victim count: 492
Average loss per victim: $53,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,708,362
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $43,063
Michigan is unusual in that its leading crime is the romance scam. According to a Federal Trade Commission report, people over 70 have the greatest individual losses for this type of crime, which averages $10,000 nationwide.
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Minnesota
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $35,690,042
Victim count: 328
Average loss per victim: $108,811
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,887,499
Victim count: 307
Average loss per victim: $22,435
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,033,913
Victim count: 38
Average loss per victim: $106,156
In Minnesota, the third-most-damaging crime type is resulting from corporate data breaches. In some cases, these crimes are possible because corporations are keeping vulnerable information in ill-advised, unprotected formats that hackers can easily find and identify.
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Mississippi
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,868,799
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $225,768
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,906,816
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $14,125
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,033,097
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $1,431
Perpetrators of romance scams have a variety of operating modes to ensure they can get the most money from their victims. This includes requesting prepaid cards or asking the victims to wire money directly to them, which limits reversibility and increases access to the money.
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Missouri
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $91,191,387
Victim count: 241
Average loss per victim: $378,387
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,238,380
Victim count: 339
Average loss per victim: $27,252
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,370,742
Victim count: 1,738
Average loss per victim: $1,939
In 2021, a Missouri newspaper found that the personal information of 100,000 teachers was easily available on a state website. The state hired a security firm to restructure the database.
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Montana
#1 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,172,601
Victim count: 7
Average loss per victim: $167,514.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,079,687
Victim count: 53
Average loss per victim: $20,371.45
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $936,068
Victim count: 68
Average loss per victim: $13,765.71
Montana’s leading most damaging crime type is investment monetary loss, which involves a user paying money into an investment scheme that is not real. Because regular investment so often involves monetary loss, hackers may find it easier to trick users into accepting these losses.
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Nebraska
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,935,109
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $83,860
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,877,131
Victim count: 76
Average loss per victim: $37,857
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,127,112
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,362
This year, the state of Nebraska is settling a class action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of users whose data was breached in 2020. The hackers gained access to users’ Social Security numbers and other identifying information.
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Nevada
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,630,186
Victim count: 181
Average loss per victim: $97,404
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,041,062
Victim count: 362
Average loss per victim: $16,688
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,959,034
Victim count: 106
Average loss per victim: $56,217
In 2021, a popular chain of slot machine venues in Las Vegas had a data breach. The parent company of Dotty’s informed customers that their identifying information—including driver’s license numbers—had likely been accessed and captured by criminals.
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New Hampshire
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,623,336
Victim count: 69
Average loss per victim: $23,527
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $820,326
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $11,554
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $513,466
Victim count: 58
Average loss per victim: $8,853
New Hampshire’s third-most-damaging crime type, tech support monetary loss, can include people pretending to be customer service for internet service providers, for example. They may offer to send helpful links that are then redirected to phishing sites.
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New Jersey
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $43,452,031
Victim count: 493
Average loss per victim: $88,138
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,545,919
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $23,806
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,075,647
Victim count: 3,017
Average loss per victim: $3,008
In recent weeks, the state of New Jersey settled with an area fertility clinicafter a data breach. That breach exposed the medical and personal data of more than 14,000 people, including 11,000 New Jersey residents.
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New Mexico
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,947,912
Victim count: 81
Average loss per victim: $122,814
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,358,676
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $28,353
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,038,960
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $75,517
In 2021, the University of New Mexico shared that a data breach had occurred. In that breach, the identifying information of 600,000 people was accessed and captured.
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New York
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $268,343,363
Victim count: 1,300
Average loss per victim: $206,418
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,286,815
Victim count: 1,103
Average loss per victim: $23,832
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,457,949
Victim count: 462
Average loss per victim: $44,281
New York’s high population and huge number of corporations makes its residents and workers a prime target for fraudsters. In 2017, two New York hospitals settled with the government to pay $4.8 million in response to privacy law-violating data breaches.
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North Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $24,878,389
Victim count: 473
Average loss per victim: $52,597
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,446,583
Victim count: 558
Average loss per victim: $25,890
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,840,457
Victim count: 111
Average loss per victim: $52,617
Some North Carolina state employees were surprised to find out that some of their vital information was carelessly leaked to the public. While the data wasn’t breached, using it to steal identities or otherwise extract financial gain or access is still a crime.
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North Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,144,420
Victim count: 55
Average loss per victim: $366,262
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,051,998
Victim count: 84
Average loss per victim: $238,714
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,910,025
Victim count: 31
Average loss per victim: $61,614
North Dakota’s surprising most damaging computer crime is personal data breach loss with an eye-popping $366,000 average loss. The state says data breaches are often caused by something as simple as reusing passwords, which they say users should not do.
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Ohio
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $129,728,566
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $267,482
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,425,775
Victim count: 3,099
Average loss per victim: $3,687
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,706,835
Victim count: 528
Average loss per victim: $14,596
In November, the Toledo County Library experienced an outage of its website and computer networks after some kind of cybersecurity incident. This kind of incident could point to a ransomware attack, where hackers demand a ransom in exchange for restoring a network.
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Oklahoma
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,819,845
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $45,771
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,497,201
Victim count: 212
Average loss per victim: $21,213
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,685,731
Victim count: 984
Average loss per victim: $1,713
In 2019, a massive data breach affected the Oklahoma Securities Commission. The data included notes on FBI investigations from a 30-year period dating back to 1986.
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Oregon
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $10,940,974
Victim count: 263
Average loss per victim: $41,601
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,328,322
Victim count: 308
Average loss per victim: $27,040
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,652,823
Victim count: 316
Average loss per victim: $21,053
In just the first nine months of 2021, the state of Oregon reported more than 130 data breaches. That compares with 110 reported breaches in all of 2020 and 99 in 2019.
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Pennsylvania
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $54,695,862
Victim count: 671
Average loss per victim: $81,514
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,235,982
Victim count: 736
Average loss per victim: $16,625
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,426,937
Victim count: 403
Average loss per victim: $20,911
In Pennsylvania, there was a data breach of information associated with COVID-19 contact tracing. The state blamed a subcontractor for not obeying the state’s security protocols and allowing data on 72,000 people to be hacked .
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Rhode Island
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,506,218
Victim count: 85
Average loss per victim: $29,485
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,381,336
Victim count: 80
Average loss per victim: $17,267
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,834
Victim count: 356
Average loss per victim: $3,463
In Rhode Island, the health records of 3,000 people were hacked in 2019. That breach was detected in realtime and sealed, but the information was still exposed.
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South Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,367,818
Victim count: 219
Average loss per victim: $38,209
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,439,116
Victim count: 250
Average loss per victim: $17,756
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,502,952
Victim count: 169
Average loss per victim: $20,728
South Carolina had a massive data breach in 2012, when 6 million residents’ data was exposed to hackers after a computer user clicked on a malware link. The hackers had weeks of access to the data and were able to invade 44 state computer-based systems.
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South Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $749,263
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $23,414
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $585,685
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $18,303
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $541,372
Victim count: 20
Average loss per victim: $27,069
In 2020, South Dakota had a now-familiar data breach of a database associated with COVID-19 patients. This began at an internet hosting provider whose servers hosted more than 200 state websites when they were hacked in June of 2020.
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Tennessee
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,831,147
Victim count: 249
Average loss per victim: $83,659
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,526,218
Victim count: 334
Average loss per victim: $13,552
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,465,348
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $62,892
In 2021, a staffing agency with a location in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a data breach that affects thousands of company associates. The leaked information included applicants who hadn’t even had subsequent contact with the organization.
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Texas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $136,223,701
Victim count: 1,662
Average loss per victim: $81,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,181,951
Victim count: 1,602
Average loss per victim: $26,331
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $37,720,530
Victim count: 3,394
Average loss per victim: $11,114
In 2020, a state subcontractor disclosed that more than 27 million Texas state driver’s licenses were exposed in a data breach. The data was stored on an unsecured external drive.
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Utah
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $15,830,458
Victim count: 66
Average loss per victim: $239,855
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,186,099
Victim count: 175
Average loss per victim: $75,349
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,036,574
Victim count: 296
Average loss per victim: $20,394
In 2012, a Utah health care provider disclosed a data breach that affected nearly 800,000 state residents. Of those, nearly 300,000 had their Social Security numbers revealed.
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Vermont
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,521,042
Victim count: 33
Average loss per victim: $46,092
#2 Most damaging crime type: Overpayment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $734,122
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $45,882
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $671,040
Victim count: 46
Average loss per victim: $14,588
Vermont’s second-most-damaging crime type is overpayment monetary loss. This scam involves sending someone a sum of money that they, then, keep part of before sending the rest to an additional party. Usually, the initial payment bounces while the user’s own money is still gone.
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Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $44,950,407
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $79,699
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $18,052,839
Victim count: 531
Average loss per victim: $33,998
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,150,181
Victim count: 1,187
Average loss per victim: $6,866
In October 2021, the state of Virginia disclosed that there was a data breachin the state’s Individual and Family Support Program portal. This happened despite 17 months of testing of the portal software before it finally opened to the public.
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Washington
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $38,009,931
Victim count: 525
Average loss per victim: $72,400
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,839,297
Victim count: 579
Average loss per victim: $25,629
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,419,979
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $44,550
In February 2021, the state of Washington reported that its unemployment records were breached. The data of more than 1.6 million state residents was compromised by a third party application.
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West Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,777
Victim count: 107
Average loss per victim: $11,521
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,070,040
Victim count: 24
Average loss per victim: $44,585
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $888,281
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $1,575
West Virginia’s Prestera Health announced in 2021 that it was subject to a data breach in 2020. The breach affected the data of patients at Prestera’s 55 locations around the state, and the breach was caused by unauthorized access to a business email address.
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Wisconsin
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $16,409,640
Victim count: 233
Average loss per victim: $70,428
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,664,897
Victim count: 355
Average loss per victim: $15,957
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,519,849
Victim count: 88
Average loss per victim: $51,362
In 2020, the Wisconsin legislature introduced the Wisconsin Data Privacy Act. This set of three bills is designed to protect state users from data breaches by requiring data-wielding organizations to install added and ensured security.
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Wyoming
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,256,674
Victim count: 36
Average loss per victim: $34,908
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,230,740
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $76,921
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $958,000
Victim count: 3
Average loss per victim: $319,333
In April 2021, the Wyoming Department of Health announced that there was a data breach of 165,000 residents’ data beginning in November 2020. That’s more than a quarter of Wyoming’s entire population.
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The most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state
Caroline Delbert
•
Sep 15, 2021
Americans reported losing more than $4.2 billion to cybercrime in 2020. Cybercrime is everywhere, partly because many of us now carry computers with us almost all the time. These crimes range from real estate fraud to refusing to pay for eBay items, from fake online romances to massive data breaches. The states all have legislation related to computer crimes, but the FBI handles the most complaints because of the federal or even international nature of many cybercrimes. These crimes cross state and national borders easily due to the internet.
Using data from the FBI’s Internet Complaints Center (IC3) 2020 Internet Crime Report, Twingate reports on the most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state in 2020 broken down by crime type and the loss reported by the victim. Crimes were ranked based on the total reported loss by all victims, though the reported loss per victim is also included. According to the report, in 2020, the IC3 received 105,301 complaints from victims over 60 with total losses in excess of $966 million.
Read on to see the most damaging cybercrimes in your state, along with quick definitions and additional facts about those crimes. The best way to prevent cybercrime is to be an informed, safe internet user.
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Alabama
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,747,390
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $76,801
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,999,229
Victim count: 226
Average loss per victim: $22,120
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,026,393
Victim count: 89
Average loss per victim: $22,768
Alabama has an extensive law against computer crime, but many cybercrimes fall into the area of social engineering, a term that suggests using human contact to trick others into offering information. This is true for romance cybercrime, where a user is catfished by a fraudster.
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Alaska
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,770,348
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $36,938
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,672,178
Victim count: 92
Average loss per victim: $18,176
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $532,111
Victim count: 62
Average loss per victim: $8,582
In Alaska, business email compromise or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) is as big a problem as it is everywhere. In this attack, users are often phished using compromised links. Once they click or even share passwords, hackers are able to take over their accounts.
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Arizona
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $30,563,349
Victim count: 365
Average loss per victim: $83,735
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,068,910
Victim count: 559
Average loss per victim: $21,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,737,849
Victim count: 435
Average loss per victim: $13,190
Arizona has an extensive computer crimes law that has been amended to include even more kinds of offenses over time. The third-most-common crime type is tech support monetary loss, which can involve giving remote access to a hacker. This type can even include people who pretend to be tech support in person and gain access that way.
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Arkansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,667,334
Victim count: 87
Average loss per victim: $111,119
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,816,994
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $12,195
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,149,209
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $32,835
Arkansas’ detailed computer crime law includes a full glossary of terms and extensive definitions of each level of misdemeanor and felony. The state’s third-most-damaging crime type, investment loss, includes fraudulent opportunities to invest in real estate or the stock market.
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California
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $219,121,752
Victim count: 2,924
Average loss per victim: $74,939
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $120,492,182
Victim count: 3,110
Average loss per victim: $38,743
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $65,674,226
Victim count: 1,026
Average loss per victim: $64,010
In California, the first small computer offense can come with up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine. The business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) takes over user access, and from there, the hacker can send a new batch of phishing messages to the user’s entire address book.
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Colorado
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $48,491,996
Victim count: 495
Average loss per victim: $97,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,975,365
Victim count: 514
Average loss per victim: $34,972
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,802,982
Victim count: 439
Average loss per victim: $26,886
In Colorado, losses of at least $2,000 turn a computer crime into a felony. Spoofing, the state’s second-most-damaging computer crime, involves pretending to be an email address from someplace credible like a bank. From there, the hackers may ask for money and then steal the money as well as the financial information.
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Connecticut
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,910,309
Victim count: 269
Average loss per victim: $85,168.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,630,798
Victim count: 199
Average loss per victim: $28,295
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,889,909
Victim count: 223
Average loss per victim: $17,444
In Connecticut, destroying computer equipment itself is covered under the state’s extensive computer crimes law. If someone lied to gain access to a computer and then destroyed it, that would likely be a tech support loss.
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Delaware
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,641,363
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $39,423
#2 Most damaging crime type: Phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $937,258
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $12,497
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $904,126
Victim count: 9
Average loss per victim: $100,458
Delaware’s most damaging crimes include monetary loss from a corporate data breach—where huge lists of consumer information are compromised, often including unprotected financial details. In this case, the crime starts by hacking the list in the first place. After that, the criminals have reams of new data to try to use for fraudulent purchases and more.
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District of Columbia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,925,252
Victim count: 143
Average loss per victim: $83,393
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,131,734
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $44,109
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,092,723
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $22,909
It’s no surprise that Washington D.C.’s computer crimes law specifically lists out national security information as an item of interest. Business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC) also has special freight in a city where so much of the nation’s vital government business is done.
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Florida
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $115,001,364
Victim count: 1,381
Average loss per victim: $83,274
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,027,595
Victim count: 6,334
Average loss per victim: $6,635
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $40,173,934
Victim count: 1,603
Average loss per victim: $25,062
Florida’s computer crimes law includes a special section prohibiting the theft or other unauthorized use of public utilities. The state’s second-most-damaging crime type, identity theft, is a wide category that can start when someone’s Social Security number leaks from a compromised corporate network.
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Georgia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $34,575,245
Victim count: 476
Average loss per victim: $72,637
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,182,112
Victim count: 2,975
Average loss per victim: $4,431
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,432,298
Victim count: 721
Average loss per victim: $15,856
In Georgia, the second-most-damaging crime type is non-payment or non-delivery loss. This type is common on sites like eBay, where users may win auctions for valuable collectibles, but use fraudulent information to temporarily pay for them, for example.
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Hawaii
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,948,292
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $58,930
#2 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,282,801
Victim count: 72
Average loss per victim: $31,706
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,810,905
Victim count: 109
Average loss per victim: $16,614
In Hawaii, accessing a computer with intent to steal something is immediately a felony. With nearly $60,000 per victim lost in business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC), these are not trifling amounts to be defrauded.
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Idaho
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,032,789
Victim count: 78
Average loss per victim: $38,882
#2 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,390,809
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $88,548
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,126,196
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,355
Idaho’s forward-looking computer crimes law dates back to 1984, before many users even had computers for home use. Romance fraud, the third-most-damaging crime type in the state, is overall the top form of computer fraud loss in the nation.
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Illinois
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $88,804,328
Victim count: 735
Average loss per victim: $120,822
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,036,350
Victim count: 688
Average loss per victim: $20,402
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,099,966
Victim count: 163
Average loss per victim: $55,828
In Illinois, a high number of cyber crime victims can be expected because there are a large number of companies based in the populous state. In 2020, a data breach in the state’s unemployment system led to a huge class action lawsuit by more than 32,000 unemployment applicants who had personal information compromised.
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Indiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $19,593,072
Victim count: 196
Average loss per victim: $99,965
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,180,026
Victim count: 332
Average loss per victim: $12,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,595,167
Victim count: 133
Average loss per victim: $19,513
In Indiana, a 2021 data breach at the state’s Department of Health targeted contact-tracing data associated with the pandemic. The breach was by a company that apparently finds vulnerabilities as a way to drum up payments.
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Iowa
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,681,056
Victim count: 154
Average loss per victim: $56,370
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,507,557
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $4,858
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,281,307
Victim count: 145
Average loss per victim: $22,630
Iowa’s most damaging crime type, business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC), found the spotlight in 2018. That year, a data breach targeted the contact and health information of 1.4 million users of a particular health system.
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Kansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,030,047
Victim count: 127
Average loss per victim: $63,229
#2 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,879,505
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $242,469
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,186,463
Victim count: 136
Average loss per victim: $16,077
State laws cover individual states when they’re part of federal or even international data breaches. In 2019, Equifax paid more than $700 million to settle over a breach that affected the people of Kansas.
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Kentucky
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,209,703
Victim count: 104
Average loss per victim: $30,863
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,471,145
Victim count: 174
Average loss per victim: $14,202
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,645,925
Victim count: 211
Average loss per victim: $7,801
In Kentucky, seven separate statutes cover the huge area of computer crimes. Identity theft, the state’s third-most-damaging crime type, is an umbrella that covers a variety of methods of defrauding computer users. The ultimate goal is to be able to access their identifying information like Social Security numbers.
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Louisiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,575,148
Victim count: 141
Average loss per victim: $53,724
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,221,414
Victim count: 228
Average loss per victim: $31,673
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,942,669
Victim count: 1,184
Average loss per victim: $2,485
A Louisiana hospital system had its patient data breached in 2020. That attack targeted one email address and then extracted information from the confidential messages it contained.
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Maine
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,828,104
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $42,211
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,514,636
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $26,573
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,257,930
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $17,717
In Maine, the third-most-damaging crime type is the real estate or rental monetary loss. In this category of crime, users may put down payments or rental deposits on properties that don’t exist or were never available.
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Maryland
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,461,793
Victim count: 449
Average loss per victim: $50,026
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,128,118
Victim count: 405
Average loss per victim: $32,415
#3 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,324,441
Victim count: 278
Average loss per victim: $22,750
Maryland’s third-most damaging crime type is government impersonation. In this type of crime, a hacker pretends to be a government official trying to collect money, for example, by asking the user to pay an outstanding tax bill.
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Massachusetts
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $55,352,075
Victim count: 532
Average loss per victim: $104,045
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,363,833
Victim count: 369
Average loss per victim: $22,666
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,006,260
Victim count: 361
Average loss per victim: $22,178
Massachusetts’ third-most-damaging crime type is the confidence fraud or romance scam. The romance scam in particular has doubled in reports nationwide between 2015 and 2018.
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Michigan
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $28,616,190
Victim count: 572
Average loss per victim: $50,028
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,366,450
Victim count: 492
Average loss per victim: $53,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,708,362
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $43,063
Michigan is unusual in that its leading crime is the romance scam. According to a Federal Trade Commission report, people over 70 have the greatest individual losses for this type of crime, which averages $10,000 nationwide.
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Minnesota
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $35,690,042
Victim count: 328
Average loss per victim: $108,811
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,887,499
Victim count: 307
Average loss per victim: $22,435
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,033,913
Victim count: 38
Average loss per victim: $106,156
In Minnesota, the third-most-damaging crime type is resulting from corporate data breaches. In some cases, these crimes are possible because corporations are keeping vulnerable information in ill-advised, unprotected formats that hackers can easily find and identify.
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Mississippi
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,868,799
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $225,768
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,906,816
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $14,125
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,033,097
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $1,431
Perpetrators of romance scams have a variety of operating modes to ensure they can get the most money from their victims. This includes requesting prepaid cards or asking the victims to wire money directly to them, which limits reversibility and increases access to the money.
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Missouri
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $91,191,387
Victim count: 241
Average loss per victim: $378,387
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,238,380
Victim count: 339
Average loss per victim: $27,252
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,370,742
Victim count: 1,738
Average loss per victim: $1,939
In 2021, a Missouri newspaper found that the personal information of 100,000 teachers was easily available on a state website. The state hired a security firm to restructure the database.
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Montana
#1 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,172,601
Victim count: 7
Average loss per victim: $167,514.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,079,687
Victim count: 53
Average loss per victim: $20,371.45
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $936,068
Victim count: 68
Average loss per victim: $13,765.71
Montana’s leading most damaging crime type is investment monetary loss, which involves a user paying money into an investment scheme that is not real. Because regular investment so often involves monetary loss, hackers may find it easier to trick users into accepting these losses.
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Nebraska
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,935,109
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $83,860
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,877,131
Victim count: 76
Average loss per victim: $37,857
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,127,112
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,362
This year, the state of Nebraska is settling a class action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of users whose data was breached in 2020. The hackers gained access to users’ Social Security numbers and other identifying information.
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Nevada
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,630,186
Victim count: 181
Average loss per victim: $97,404
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,041,062
Victim count: 362
Average loss per victim: $16,688
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,959,034
Victim count: 106
Average loss per victim: $56,217
In 2021, a popular chain of slot machine venues in Las Vegas had a data breach. The parent company of Dotty’s informed customers that their identifying information—including driver’s license numbers—had likely been accessed and captured by criminals.
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New Hampshire
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,623,336
Victim count: 69
Average loss per victim: $23,527
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $820,326
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $11,554
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $513,466
Victim count: 58
Average loss per victim: $8,853
New Hampshire’s third-most-damaging crime type, tech support monetary loss, can include people pretending to be customer service for internet service providers, for example. They may offer to send helpful links that are then redirected to phishing sites.
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New Jersey
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $43,452,031
Victim count: 493
Average loss per victim: $88,138
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,545,919
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $23,806
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,075,647
Victim count: 3,017
Average loss per victim: $3,008
In recent weeks, the state of New Jersey settled with an area fertility clinicafter a data breach. That breach exposed the medical and personal data of more than 14,000 people, including 11,000 New Jersey residents.
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New Mexico
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,947,912
Victim count: 81
Average loss per victim: $122,814
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,358,676
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $28,353
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,038,960
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $75,517
In 2021, the University of New Mexico shared that a data breach had occurred. In that breach, the identifying information of 600,000 people was accessed and captured.
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New York
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $268,343,363
Victim count: 1,300
Average loss per victim: $206,418
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,286,815
Victim count: 1,103
Average loss per victim: $23,832
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,457,949
Victim count: 462
Average loss per victim: $44,281
New York’s high population and huge number of corporations makes its residents and workers a prime target for fraudsters. In 2017, two New York hospitals settled with the government to pay $4.8 million in response to privacy law-violating data breaches.
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North Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $24,878,389
Victim count: 473
Average loss per victim: $52,597
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,446,583
Victim count: 558
Average loss per victim: $25,890
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,840,457
Victim count: 111
Average loss per victim: $52,617
Some North Carolina state employees were surprised to find out that some of their vital information was carelessly leaked to the public. While the data wasn’t breached, using it to steal identities or otherwise extract financial gain or access is still a crime.
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North Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,144,420
Victim count: 55
Average loss per victim: $366,262
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,051,998
Victim count: 84
Average loss per victim: $238,714
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,910,025
Victim count: 31
Average loss per victim: $61,614
North Dakota’s surprising most damaging computer crime is personal data breach loss with an eye-popping $366,000 average loss. The state says data breaches are often caused by something as simple as reusing passwords, which they say users should not do.
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Ohio
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $129,728,566
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $267,482
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,425,775
Victim count: 3,099
Average loss per victim: $3,687
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,706,835
Victim count: 528
Average loss per victim: $14,596
In November, the Toledo County Library experienced an outage of its website and computer networks after some kind of cybersecurity incident. This kind of incident could point to a ransomware attack, where hackers demand a ransom in exchange for restoring a network.
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Oklahoma
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,819,845
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $45,771
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,497,201
Victim count: 212
Average loss per victim: $21,213
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,685,731
Victim count: 984
Average loss per victim: $1,713
In 2019, a massive data breach affected the Oklahoma Securities Commission. The data included notes on FBI investigations from a 30-year period dating back to 1986.
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Oregon
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $10,940,974
Victim count: 263
Average loss per victim: $41,601
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,328,322
Victim count: 308
Average loss per victim: $27,040
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,652,823
Victim count: 316
Average loss per victim: $21,053
In just the first nine months of 2021, the state of Oregon reported more than 130 data breaches. That compares with 110 reported breaches in all of 2020 and 99 in 2019.
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Pennsylvania
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $54,695,862
Victim count: 671
Average loss per victim: $81,514
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,235,982
Victim count: 736
Average loss per victim: $16,625
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,426,937
Victim count: 403
Average loss per victim: $20,911
In Pennsylvania, there was a data breach of information associated with COVID-19 contact tracing. The state blamed a subcontractor for not obeying the state’s security protocols and allowing data on 72,000 people to be hacked .
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Rhode Island
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,506,218
Victim count: 85
Average loss per victim: $29,485
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,381,336
Victim count: 80
Average loss per victim: $17,267
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,834
Victim count: 356
Average loss per victim: $3,463
In Rhode Island, the health records of 3,000 people were hacked in 2019. That breach was detected in realtime and sealed, but the information was still exposed.
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South Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,367,818
Victim count: 219
Average loss per victim: $38,209
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,439,116
Victim count: 250
Average loss per victim: $17,756
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,502,952
Victim count: 169
Average loss per victim: $20,728
South Carolina had a massive data breach in 2012, when 6 million residents’ data was exposed to hackers after a computer user clicked on a malware link. The hackers had weeks of access to the data and were able to invade 44 state computer-based systems.
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South Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $749,263
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $23,414
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $585,685
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $18,303
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $541,372
Victim count: 20
Average loss per victim: $27,069
In 2020, South Dakota had a now-familiar data breach of a database associated with COVID-19 patients. This began at an internet hosting provider whose servers hosted more than 200 state websites when they were hacked in June of 2020.
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Tennessee
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,831,147
Victim count: 249
Average loss per victim: $83,659
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,526,218
Victim count: 334
Average loss per victim: $13,552
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,465,348
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $62,892
In 2021, a staffing agency with a location in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a data breach that affects thousands of company associates. The leaked information included applicants who hadn’t even had subsequent contact with the organization.
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Texas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $136,223,701
Victim count: 1,662
Average loss per victim: $81,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,181,951
Victim count: 1,602
Average loss per victim: $26,331
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $37,720,530
Victim count: 3,394
Average loss per victim: $11,114
In 2020, a state subcontractor disclosed that more than 27 million Texas state driver’s licenses were exposed in a data breach. The data was stored on an unsecured external drive.
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Utah
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $15,830,458
Victim count: 66
Average loss per victim: $239,855
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,186,099
Victim count: 175
Average loss per victim: $75,349
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,036,574
Victim count: 296
Average loss per victim: $20,394
In 2012, a Utah health care provider disclosed a data breach that affected nearly 800,000 state residents. Of those, nearly 300,000 had their Social Security numbers revealed.
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Vermont
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,521,042
Victim count: 33
Average loss per victim: $46,092
#2 Most damaging crime type: Overpayment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $734,122
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $45,882
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $671,040
Victim count: 46
Average loss per victim: $14,588
Vermont’s second-most-damaging crime type is overpayment monetary loss. This scam involves sending someone a sum of money that they, then, keep part of before sending the rest to an additional party. Usually, the initial payment bounces while the user’s own money is still gone.
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Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $44,950,407
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $79,699
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $18,052,839
Victim count: 531
Average loss per victim: $33,998
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,150,181
Victim count: 1,187
Average loss per victim: $6,866
In October 2021, the state of Virginia disclosed that there was a data breachin the state’s Individual and Family Support Program portal. This happened despite 17 months of testing of the portal software before it finally opened to the public.
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Washington
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $38,009,931
Victim count: 525
Average loss per victim: $72,400
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,839,297
Victim count: 579
Average loss per victim: $25,629
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,419,979
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $44,550
In February 2021, the state of Washington reported that its unemployment records were breached. The data of more than 1.6 million state residents was compromised by a third party application.
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West Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,777
Victim count: 107
Average loss per victim: $11,521
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,070,040
Victim count: 24
Average loss per victim: $44,585
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $888,281
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $1,575
West Virginia’s Prestera Health announced in 2021 that it was subject to a data breach in 2020. The breach affected the data of patients at Prestera’s 55 locations around the state, and the breach was caused by unauthorized access to a business email address.
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Wisconsin
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $16,409,640
Victim count: 233
Average loss per victim: $70,428
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,664,897
Victim count: 355
Average loss per victim: $15,957
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,519,849
Victim count: 88
Average loss per victim: $51,362
In 2020, the Wisconsin legislature introduced the Wisconsin Data Privacy Act. This set of three bills is designed to protect state users from data breaches by requiring data-wielding organizations to install added and ensured security.
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Wyoming
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,256,674
Victim count: 36
Average loss per victim: $34,908
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,230,740
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $76,921
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $958,000
Victim count: 3
Average loss per victim: $319,333
In April 2021, the Wyoming Department of Health announced that there was a data breach of 165,000 residents’ data beginning in November 2020. That’s more than a quarter of Wyoming’s entire population.
The most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state
Caroline Delbert
•
Sep 15, 2021
Americans reported losing more than $4.2 billion to cybercrime in 2020. Cybercrime is everywhere, partly because many of us now carry computers with us almost all the time. These crimes range from real estate fraud to refusing to pay for eBay items, from fake online romances to massive data breaches. The states all have legislation related to computer crimes, but the FBI handles the most complaints because of the federal or even international nature of many cybercrimes. These crimes cross state and national borders easily due to the internet.
Using data from the FBI’s Internet Complaints Center (IC3) 2020 Internet Crime Report, Twingate reports on the most financially damaging cybercrimes in your state in 2020 broken down by crime type and the loss reported by the victim. Crimes were ranked based on the total reported loss by all victims, though the reported loss per victim is also included. According to the report, in 2020, the IC3 received 105,301 complaints from victims over 60 with total losses in excess of $966 million.
Read on to see the most damaging cybercrimes in your state, along with quick definitions and additional facts about those crimes. The best way to prevent cybercrime is to be an informed, safe internet user.
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Alabama
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,747,390
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $76,801
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,999,229
Victim count: 226
Average loss per victim: $22,120
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,026,393
Victim count: 89
Average loss per victim: $22,768
Alabama has an extensive law against computer crime, but many cybercrimes fall into the area of social engineering, a term that suggests using human contact to trick others into offering information. This is true for romance cybercrime, where a user is catfished by a fraudster.
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Alaska
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,770,348
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $36,938
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,672,178
Victim count: 92
Average loss per victim: $18,176
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $532,111
Victim count: 62
Average loss per victim: $8,582
In Alaska, business email compromise or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) is as big a problem as it is everywhere. In this attack, users are often phished using compromised links. Once they click or even share passwords, hackers are able to take over their accounts.
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Arizona
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $30,563,349
Victim count: 365
Average loss per victim: $83,735
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,068,910
Victim count: 559
Average loss per victim: $21,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,737,849
Victim count: 435
Average loss per victim: $13,190
Arizona has an extensive computer crimes law that has been amended to include even more kinds of offenses over time. The third-most-common crime type is tech support monetary loss, which can involve giving remote access to a hacker. This type can even include people who pretend to be tech support in person and gain access that way.
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Arkansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,667,334
Victim count: 87
Average loss per victim: $111,119
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,816,994
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $12,195
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,149,209
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $32,835
Arkansas’ detailed computer crime law includes a full glossary of terms and extensive definitions of each level of misdemeanor and felony. The state’s third-most-damaging crime type, investment loss, includes fraudulent opportunities to invest in real estate or the stock market.
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California
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $219,121,752
Victim count: 2,924
Average loss per victim: $74,939
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $120,492,182
Victim count: 3,110
Average loss per victim: $38,743
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $65,674,226
Victim count: 1,026
Average loss per victim: $64,010
In California, the first small computer offense can come with up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine. The business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC) takes over user access, and from there, the hacker can send a new batch of phishing messages to the user’s entire address book.
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Colorado
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $48,491,996
Victim count: 495
Average loss per victim: $97,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,975,365
Victim count: 514
Average loss per victim: $34,972
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,802,982
Victim count: 439
Average loss per victim: $26,886
In Colorado, losses of at least $2,000 turn a computer crime into a felony. Spoofing, the state’s second-most-damaging computer crime, involves pretending to be an email address from someplace credible like a bank. From there, the hackers may ask for money and then steal the money as well as the financial information.
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Connecticut
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,910,309
Victim count: 269
Average loss per victim: $85,168.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,630,798
Victim count: 199
Average loss per victim: $28,295
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,889,909
Victim count: 223
Average loss per victim: $17,444
In Connecticut, destroying computer equipment itself is covered under the state’s extensive computer crimes law. If someone lied to gain access to a computer and then destroyed it, that would likely be a tech support loss.
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Delaware
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,641,363
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $39,423
#2 Most damaging crime type: Phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $937,258
Victim count: 75
Average loss per victim: $12,497
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $904,126
Victim count: 9
Average loss per victim: $100,458
Delaware’s most damaging crimes include monetary loss from a corporate data breach—where huge lists of consumer information are compromised, often including unprotected financial details. In this case, the crime starts by hacking the list in the first place. After that, the criminals have reams of new data to try to use for fraudulent purchases and more.
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District of Columbia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,925,252
Victim count: 143
Average loss per victim: $83,393
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,131,734
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $44,109
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,092,723
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $22,909
It’s no surprise that Washington D.C.’s computer crimes law specifically lists out national security information as an item of interest. Business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC) also has special freight in a city where so much of the nation’s vital government business is done.
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Florida
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $115,001,364
Victim count: 1,381
Average loss per victim: $83,274
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,027,595
Victim count: 6,334
Average loss per victim: $6,635
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $40,173,934
Victim count: 1,603
Average loss per victim: $25,062
Florida’s computer crimes law includes a special section prohibiting the theft or other unauthorized use of public utilities. The state’s second-most-damaging crime type, identity theft, is a wide category that can start when someone’s Social Security number leaks from a compromised corporate network.
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Georgia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $34,575,245
Victim count: 476
Average loss per victim: $72,637
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,182,112
Victim count: 2,975
Average loss per victim: $4,431
#3 Most damaging crime type: Spoofing monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,432,298
Victim count: 721
Average loss per victim: $15,856
In Georgia, the second-most-damaging crime type is non-payment or non-delivery loss. This type is common on sites like eBay, where users may win auctions for valuable collectibles, but use fraudulent information to temporarily pay for them, for example.
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Hawaii
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,948,292
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $58,930
#2 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,282,801
Victim count: 72
Average loss per victim: $31,706
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,810,905
Victim count: 109
Average loss per victim: $16,614
In Hawaii, accessing a computer with intent to steal something is immediately a felony. With nearly $60,000 per victim lost in business email and email address compromise (BEC/EAC), these are not trifling amounts to be defrauded.
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Idaho
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,032,789
Victim count: 78
Average loss per victim: $38,882
#2 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,390,809
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $88,548
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,126,196
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,355
Idaho’s forward-looking computer crimes law dates back to 1984, before many users even had computers for home use. Romance fraud, the third-most-damaging crime type in the state, is overall the top form of computer fraud loss in the nation.
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Illinois
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $88,804,328
Victim count: 735
Average loss per victim: $120,822
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,036,350
Victim count: 688
Average loss per victim: $20,402
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,099,966
Victim count: 163
Average loss per victim: $55,828
In Illinois, a high number of cyber crime victims can be expected because there are a large number of companies based in the populous state. In 2020, a data breach in the state’s unemployment system led to a huge class action lawsuit by more than 32,000 unemployment applicants who had personal information compromised.
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Indiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $19,593,072
Victim count: 196
Average loss per victim: $99,965
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,180,026
Victim count: 332
Average loss per victim: $12,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,595,167
Victim count: 133
Average loss per victim: $19,513
In Indiana, a 2021 data breach at the state’s Department of Health targeted contact-tracing data associated with the pandemic. The breach was by a company that apparently finds vulnerabilities as a way to drum up payments.
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Iowa
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,681,056
Victim count: 154
Average loss per victim: $56,370
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,507,557
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $4,858
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,281,307
Victim count: 145
Average loss per victim: $22,630
Iowa’s most damaging crime type, business email or email address compromise (BEC/EAC), found the spotlight in 2018. That year, a data breach targeted the contact and health information of 1.4 million users of a particular health system.
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Kansas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,030,047
Victim count: 127
Average loss per victim: $63,229
#2 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,879,505
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $242,469
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,186,463
Victim count: 136
Average loss per victim: $16,077
State laws cover individual states when they’re part of federal or even international data breaches. In 2019, Equifax paid more than $700 million to settle over a breach that affected the people of Kansas.
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Kentucky
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,209,703
Victim count: 104
Average loss per victim: $30,863
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,471,145
Victim count: 174
Average loss per victim: $14,202
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,645,925
Victim count: 211
Average loss per victim: $7,801
In Kentucky, seven separate statutes cover the huge area of computer crimes. Identity theft, the state’s third-most-damaging crime type, is an umbrella that covers a variety of methods of defrauding computer users. The ultimate goal is to be able to access their identifying information like Social Security numbers.
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Louisiana
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,575,148
Victim count: 141
Average loss per victim: $53,724
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,221,414
Victim count: 228
Average loss per victim: $31,673
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,942,669
Victim count: 1,184
Average loss per victim: $2,485
A Louisiana hospital system had its patient data breached in 2020. That attack targeted one email address and then extracted information from the confidential messages it contained.
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Maine
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,828,104
Victim count: 67
Average loss per victim: $42,211
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,514,636
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $26,573
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,257,930
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $17,717
In Maine, the third-most-damaging crime type is the real estate or rental monetary loss. In this category of crime, users may put down payments or rental deposits on properties that don’t exist or were never available.
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Maryland
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $22,461,793
Victim count: 449
Average loss per victim: $50,026
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,128,118
Victim count: 405
Average loss per victim: $32,415
#3 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,324,441
Victim count: 278
Average loss per victim: $22,750
Maryland’s third-most damaging crime type is government impersonation. In this type of crime, a hacker pretends to be a government official trying to collect money, for example, by asking the user to pay an outstanding tax bill.
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Massachusetts
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $55,352,075
Victim count: 532
Average loss per victim: $104,045
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,363,833
Victim count: 369
Average loss per victim: $22,666
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,006,260
Victim count: 361
Average loss per victim: $22,178
Massachusetts’ third-most-damaging crime type is the confidence fraud or romance scam. The romance scam in particular has doubled in reports nationwide between 2015 and 2018.
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Michigan
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $28,616,190
Victim count: 572
Average loss per victim: $50,028
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,366,450
Victim count: 492
Average loss per victim: $53,590
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,708,362
Victim count: 179
Average loss per victim: $43,063
Michigan is unusual in that its leading crime is the romance scam. According to a Federal Trade Commission report, people over 70 have the greatest individual losses for this type of crime, which averages $10,000 nationwide.
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Minnesota
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $35,690,042
Victim count: 328
Average loss per victim: $108,811
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,887,499
Victim count: 307
Average loss per victim: $22,435
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,033,913
Victim count: 38
Average loss per victim: $106,156
In Minnesota, the third-most-damaging crime type is resulting from corporate data breaches. In some cases, these crimes are possible because corporations are keeping vulnerable information in ill-advised, unprotected formats that hackers can easily find and identify.
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Mississippi
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,868,799
Victim count: 57
Average loss per victim: $225,768
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,906,816
Victim count: 135
Average loss per victim: $14,125
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,033,097
Victim count: 722
Average loss per victim: $1,431
Perpetrators of romance scams have a variety of operating modes to ensure they can get the most money from their victims. This includes requesting prepaid cards or asking the victims to wire money directly to them, which limits reversibility and increases access to the money.
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Missouri
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $91,191,387
Victim count: 241
Average loss per victim: $378,387
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,238,380
Victim count: 339
Average loss per victim: $27,252
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,370,742
Victim count: 1,738
Average loss per victim: $1,939
In 2021, a Missouri newspaper found that the personal information of 100,000 teachers was easily available on a state website. The state hired a security firm to restructure the database.
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Montana
#1 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,172,601
Victim count: 7
Average loss per victim: $167,514.43
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,079,687
Victim count: 53
Average loss per victim: $20,371.45
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $936,068
Victim count: 68
Average loss per victim: $13,765.71
Montana’s leading most damaging crime type is investment monetary loss, which involves a user paying money into an investment scheme that is not real. Because regular investment so often involves monetary loss, hackers may find it easier to trick users into accepting these losses.
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Nebraska
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,935,109
Victim count: 35
Average loss per victim: $83,860
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,877,131
Victim count: 76
Average loss per victim: $37,857
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,127,112
Victim count: 130
Average loss per victim: $16,362
This year, the state of Nebraska is settling a class action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of users whose data was breached in 2020. The hackers gained access to users’ Social Security numbers and other identifying information.
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Nevada
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $17,630,186
Victim count: 181
Average loss per victim: $97,404
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,041,062
Victim count: 362
Average loss per victim: $16,688
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,959,034
Victim count: 106
Average loss per victim: $56,217
In 2021, a popular chain of slot machine venues in Las Vegas had a data breach. The parent company of Dotty’s informed customers that their identifying information—including driver’s license numbers—had likely been accessed and captured by criminals.
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New Hampshire
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,623,336
Victim count: 69
Average loss per victim: $23,527
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $820,326
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $11,554
#3 Most damaging crime type: Tech Support monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $513,466
Victim count: 58
Average loss per victim: $8,853
New Hampshire’s third-most-damaging crime type, tech support monetary loss, can include people pretending to be customer service for internet service providers, for example. They may offer to send helpful links that are then redirected to phishing sites.
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New Jersey
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $43,452,031
Victim count: 493
Average loss per victim: $88,138
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,545,919
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $23,806
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,075,647
Victim count: 3,017
Average loss per victim: $3,008
In recent weeks, the state of New Jersey settled with an area fertility clinicafter a data breach. That breach exposed the medical and personal data of more than 14,000 people, including 11,000 New Jersey residents.
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New Mexico
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $9,947,912
Victim count: 81
Average loss per victim: $122,814
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,358,676
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $28,353
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,038,960
Victim count: 27
Average loss per victim: $75,517
In 2021, the University of New Mexico shared that a data breach had occurred. In that breach, the identifying information of 600,000 people was accessed and captured.
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New York
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $268,343,363
Victim count: 1,300
Average loss per victim: $206,418
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $26,286,815
Victim count: 1,103
Average loss per victim: $23,832
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,457,949
Victim count: 462
Average loss per victim: $44,281
New York’s high population and huge number of corporations makes its residents and workers a prime target for fraudsters. In 2017, two New York hospitals settled with the government to pay $4.8 million in response to privacy law-violating data breaches.
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North Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $24,878,389
Victim count: 473
Average loss per victim: $52,597
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,446,583
Victim count: 558
Average loss per victim: $25,890
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,840,457
Victim count: 111
Average loss per victim: $52,617
Some North Carolina state employees were surprised to find out that some of their vital information was carelessly leaked to the public. While the data wasn’t breached, using it to steal identities or otherwise extract financial gain or access is still a crime.
Jacob Boomsa // Shutterstock
North Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,144,420
Victim count: 55
Average loss per victim: $366,262
#2 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,051,998
Victim count: 84
Average loss per victim: $238,714
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,910,025
Victim count: 31
Average loss per victim: $61,614
North Dakota’s surprising most damaging computer crime is personal data breach loss with an eye-popping $366,000 average loss. The state says data breaches are often caused by something as simple as reusing passwords, which they say users should not do.
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Ohio
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $129,728,566
Victim count: 485
Average loss per victim: $267,482
#2 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $11,425,775
Victim count: 3,099
Average loss per victim: $3,687
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $7,706,835
Victim count: 528
Average loss per victim: $14,596
In November, the Toledo County Library experienced an outage of its website and computer networks after some kind of cybersecurity incident. This kind of incident could point to a ransomware attack, where hackers demand a ransom in exchange for restoring a network.
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Oklahoma
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,819,845
Victim count: 149
Average loss per victim: $45,771
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,497,201
Victim count: 212
Average loss per victim: $21,213
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,685,731
Victim count: 984
Average loss per victim: $1,713
In 2019, a massive data breach affected the Oklahoma Securities Commission. The data included notes on FBI investigations from a 30-year period dating back to 1986.
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Oregon
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $10,940,974
Victim count: 263
Average loss per victim: $41,601
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,328,322
Victim count: 308
Average loss per victim: $27,040
#3 Most damaging crime type: Identity Theft monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,652,823
Victim count: 316
Average loss per victim: $21,053
In just the first nine months of 2021, the state of Oregon reported more than 130 data breaches. That compares with 110 reported breaches in all of 2020 and 99 in 2019.
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Pennsylvania
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $54,695,862
Victim count: 671
Average loss per victim: $81,514
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $12,235,982
Victim count: 736
Average loss per victim: $16,625
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,426,937
Victim count: 403
Average loss per victim: $20,911
In Pennsylvania, there was a data breach of information associated with COVID-19 contact tracing. The state blamed a subcontractor for not obeying the state’s security protocols and allowing data on 72,000 people to be hacked .
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Rhode Island
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $2,506,218
Victim count: 85
Average loss per victim: $29,485
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,381,336
Victim count: 80
Average loss per victim: $17,267
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,834
Victim count: 356
Average loss per victim: $3,463
In Rhode Island, the health records of 3,000 people were hacked in 2019. That breach was detected in realtime and sealed, but the information was still exposed.
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South Carolina
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,367,818
Victim count: 219
Average loss per victim: $38,209
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,439,116
Victim count: 250
Average loss per victim: $17,756
#3 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $3,502,952
Victim count: 169
Average loss per victim: $20,728
South Carolina had a massive data breach in 2012, when 6 million residents’ data was exposed to hackers after a computer user clicked on a malware link. The hackers had weeks of access to the data and were able to invade 44 state computer-based systems.
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South Dakota
#1 Most damaging crime type: Government Impersonation monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $749,263
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $23,414
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $585,685
Victim count: 32
Average loss per victim: $18,303
#3 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $541,372
Victim count: 20
Average loss per victim: $27,069
In 2020, South Dakota had a now-familiar data breach of a database associated with COVID-19 patients. This began at an internet hosting provider whose servers hosted more than 200 state websites when they were hacked in June of 2020.
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Tennessee
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $20,831,147
Victim count: 249
Average loss per victim: $83,659
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,526,218
Victim count: 334
Average loss per victim: $13,552
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,465,348
Victim count: 71
Average loss per victim: $62,892
In 2021, a staffing agency with a location in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a data breach that affects thousands of company associates. The leaked information included applicants who hadn’t even had subsequent contact with the organization.
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Texas
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $136,223,701
Victim count: 1,662
Average loss per victim: $81,964
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $42,181,951
Victim count: 1,602
Average loss per victim: $26,331
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $37,720,530
Victim count: 3,394
Average loss per victim: $11,114
In 2020, a state subcontractor disclosed that more than 27 million Texas state driver’s licenses were exposed in a data breach. The data was stored on an unsecured external drive.
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Utah
#1 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $15,830,458
Victim count: 66
Average loss per victim: $239,855
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $13,186,099
Victim count: 175
Average loss per victim: $75,349
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $6,036,574
Victim count: 296
Average loss per victim: $20,394
In 2012, a Utah health care provider disclosed a data breach that affected nearly 800,000 state residents. Of those, nearly 300,000 had their Social Security numbers revealed.
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Vermont
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,521,042
Victim count: 33
Average loss per victim: $46,092
#2 Most damaging crime type: Overpayment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $734,122
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $45,882
#3 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $671,040
Victim count: 46
Average loss per victim: $14,588
Vermont’s second-most-damaging crime type is overpayment monetary loss. This scam involves sending someone a sum of money that they, then, keep part of before sending the rest to an additional party. Usually, the initial payment bounces while the user’s own money is still gone.
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Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $44,950,407
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $79,699
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $18,052,839
Victim count: 531
Average loss per victim: $33,998
#3 Most damaging crime type: Personal Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,150,181
Victim count: 1,187
Average loss per victim: $6,866
In October 2021, the state of Virginia disclosed that there was a data breachin the state’s Individual and Family Support Program portal. This happened despite 17 months of testing of the portal software before it finally opened to the public.
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Washington
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $38,009,931
Victim count: 525
Average loss per victim: $72,400
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $14,839,297
Victim count: 579
Average loss per victim: $25,629
#3 Most damaging crime type: Other monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $8,419,979
Victim count: 189
Average loss per victim: $44,550
In February 2021, the state of Washington reported that its unemployment records were breached. The data of more than 1.6 million state residents was compromised by a third party application.
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West Virginia
#1 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,232,777
Victim count: 107
Average loss per victim: $11,521
#2 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,070,040
Victim count: 24
Average loss per victim: $44,585
#3 Most damaging crime type: Non-payment/Non-delivery monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $888,281
Victim count: 564
Average loss per victim: $1,575
West Virginia’s Prestera Health announced in 2021 that it was subject to a data breach in 2020. The breach affected the data of patients at Prestera’s 55 locations around the state, and the breach was caused by unauthorized access to a business email address.
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Wisconsin
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $16,409,640
Victim count: 233
Average loss per victim: $70,428
#2 Most damaging crime type: Confidence Fraud/Romance monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $5,664,897
Victim count: 355
Average loss per victim: $15,957
#3 Most damaging crime type: Investment monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $4,519,849
Victim count: 88
Average loss per victim: $51,362
In 2020, the Wisconsin legislature introduced the Wisconsin Data Privacy Act. This set of three bills is designed to protect state users from data breaches by requiring data-wielding organizations to install added and ensured security.
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Wyoming
#1 Most damaging crime type: BEC/EAC monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,256,674
Victim count: 36
Average loss per victim: $34,908
#2 Most damaging crime type: Real Estate/Rental monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $1,230,740
Victim count: 16
Average loss per victim: $76,921
#3 Most damaging crime type: Corporate Data Breach monetary loss
Total monetary loss: $958,000
Victim count: 3
Average loss per victim: $319,333
In April 2021, the Wyoming Department of Health announced that there was a data breach of 165,000 residents’ data beginning in November 2020. That’s more than a quarter of Wyoming’s entire population.
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