FTC reports Coloradans lost $164M to fraudsters last year
DENVER (KDVR) — The Federal Trade Commission is helping celebrate National Consumer Protection Week by sharing data about fraud in the U.S.
Nationwide, Americans lost over $10 billion to fraud and scams, with Colorado residents losing $164.2 million.
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However, that is an increase from the $140 million reported lost in 2022, and nearly double what Coloradans lost in 2021, which was a reported $84.4 million.
But Colorado was nowhere near the top state for fraud reports per 100,000 residents — the state ranked 15th, with 1,073 reports per 100,000 residents for a total of about 61,433 reports of fraud and other scams. Only 40,625 reports were attributed to fraud alone.
The FTC also breaks down data on fraud and other reports by metro area. Colorado had seven such areas. The number one fraud category for all seven areas is imposter scams, which include callers who are pretending to be law enforcement or another authority or try to pass themselves off as employees of a valid business.
The median amount each victim lost to scammers was $500, the FTC reported.
Grand Junction
During 2023, Grand Junction had 1,359 fraud or other reports, or about 879 reports per 100,000 population members.
The area’s biggest fraud category was imposter scams, with 398 such cases reported. Online shopping and negative reviews came in second with 145 such reports. This was followed by prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries (93 reports), telephone and mobile services (35) and internet services (31).
The top five other categories were banks and lender scams (78), auto-related (62), credit bureaus (26), home repair or improvement (25) and credit cards and loss protection (24).
Fort Collins
The northern Colorado college town had 3,755 reports of fraud or scams in 2023, the FTC reported. That amounts to about 1,059 reports per 100,000 residents.
Imposter scams topped this metro area’s fraud categories as well, with 987 such reports. Online shopping followed with 351 reports, and rounding out the top five fraud categories for Fort Collins were prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (156), business and job opportunities (121) and investment-related fraud (105).
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Additional scams commonly reported were banks and lenders (205 reports), credit bureaus (191), auto-related (169), debt collection (86) and home repair (81).
Greeley
The Weld County region had 2,616 reports of fraud or scams in 2023, according to the FTC. That’s about 811 reports per 100,000 people.
Once again topping the area’s fraud categories reported by the FTC were imposter scams (597 reports), followed by online shopping (263), prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (134), investment-related (63) and health care (60).
Additional commonly reported scams were related to banks and lenders (193 reports), auto-related (124), credit bureaus (107), debt collection (78) and home repair (63).
Boulder
This outdoor-centric metro area reported fraud about 3,593 times, which is about 1,093 reports per 100,000 residents.
Top scams included imposters (960), followed by online shopping (386), prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (102), internet services (101) and health care (94).
Other scams reported by Boulderites were related to banks and lenders (216 reports), auto-related (155), credit bureaus (144), credit cards (83) and debt collection (57).
Pueblo
The southeastern city and county of Pueblo is often overlooked, but the FTC found the Puebloans reported fraud about 1,573 times, which is about 939 reports per 100,000 residents.
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The top fraud category once again was claimed by imposter scams with 351 reported. Following that was prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (164 reports), online shopping (162), business and job opportunities (47) and telephone services (41).
The top five other scam categories for Pueblo are banks and lenders (83 reports), auto-related (58), credit bureaus (58), debt collection (48) and credit cards (40).
Colorado Springs
The Colorado Springs metro area, which includes El Paso and Teller counties, had 8,469 reports of fraud, or about 1,133 reports per 100,000 residents.
The area was plagued again by imposter scams (1,693 reports), online shopping (799), prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (387), business and job opportunities (268) and internet services (204).
Other scams targeted at Colorado Springs residents included credit bureaus (625 reports), banks and lenders (546), auto-related (453), debt collection (244) and credit cards (219).
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area
This area is by far the most populated of the areas scrutinized by the FTC. It also had the highest number of fraud or scam reports with 33,678 reports, or about 1,147 reports per 100,000 residents.
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The region’s top fraud categories were imposter scams (7,221), online shopping (3,247), prizes/sweepstakes/lotteries (1,139), internet services (897) and business and job opportunities (886).
Other scam categories included credit bureaus (2,314 reports), banks and lenders (2,195), auto-related (1,557), credit cards (930) and debt collection (910).
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