Florida ranked third most catfished state in America, study says
Florida is ranked near the top of the list when it comes to romance scams.
The state came in third place for most “catfishing” in America in 2020, according to the website SocialCatfish.com, which markets an app that helps verify the identities of people on the internet.
The site’s study, based on data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the Federal Trade Commission that was released in February and March 2021, showed that the state had more than 1,600 victims who lost more than $40 million in the romance schemes in which people use images and personas pretending to be people other than who they actually are in order to scam money from unsuspecting targets.
Only California and Texas were ranked higher than Florida in terms of money lost to the scams.
There were 3,110 California victims who lost $120 million and 1,602 Texas victims who lost $42.1 million.
Michigan and New York placed fourth and fifth.
The former had 572 victims losing $28.6 million and the latter had 1,103 victims losing $26.2 million, according to SocialCatfish.com.
Americans across the country lost more than $304 million in 2020, an increase from the $201 million lost in 2019, according to the study.
The least targeted catfished states are Wyoming, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Vermont.
SocialCatfish.com offered five tips to help people avoid being catfished.
Never give money, take things slow, meet or video chat first, do a reverse search on someone’s photos, and be aware on all platforms.
Scammers are just as active on social media as they are on dating apps, the website said.
SocialCatfish.com created the
