Which states are most affected by phishing scams?

By Talker Staff

Phishing is one of the most prevalent types of cybercrime, with over 500 million phishing attacks reported in 2022. For perspective, that’s over double the number of reported attacks in 2021—and not surprisingly so, as it’s one of the easiest types of scams to fall prey to.

With increasingly sophisticated phishing scams, cybercriminals are luring unsuspecting people into handing over their personal information. These scams were once largely centered around email, but attacks are also becoming commonplace via text and phone as scammers spoof phone numbers to appear legitimate.

This makes it more important for business owners to find a reliable, secure voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone provider than ever before.

Phishing statistics show that in 2022, there were 300,497 phishing victims, with a total loss of $52,089,159 in the U.S. alone. While phishing attacks occur nationwide, some states experienced far higher—or lower—rates of attacks and with widely varying amounts of losses. Forbes Advisor analyzed data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Internet Crimes Report to develop a comprehensive guide to phishing statistics by state in 2023.

Top 10 States Most Affected by Phishing Scams

The following table shows the 10 states that are more affected by phishing scams. This considers the prevalence of phishing scams and the growth in the number of phishing scams since 2018. It includes the number of victims per capita (100,000 residents), financial losses of the victims and the change in the amount of financial loss per capita between 2018 and 2022. This provides a complete picture of how phishing scams statistically impact each state.

The state that is overall the most affected by phishing scams is Nevada. It has the third-highest rate of phishing victims per capita, behind the District of Columbia (D.C.) and Wisconsin and the third-highest financial loss to phishing per capita, behind Arkansas and New Hampshire, respectively. Interestingly, its change in the financial loss since 2018 increased by 207%—the 11th-highest increase in the nation—indicating that despite its prevalence, phishing scams are increasingly lucrative for scammers targeting residents of the “Silver State.”

Behind Nevada is the District of Columbia as the second-most affected state in the country by phishing. The nation’s capital had the highest number of phishing victims per capita and the ninth-highest financial loss to phishing at $25,562 per 100,000 residents—about double the national average of $12,879. Unlike Nevada, the average financial loss has dropped since 2018 by nearly 40%. Yet, D.C. still experienced one of the nation’s highest financial losses per capita.

The third state most affected by phishing is New Jersey. While New Jersey has a relatively average rate of phishing victims at the 20th highest in the nation, it had the eighth-highest number of phishing attacks, accounting for an average financial loss of $30,779—the sixth highest in the country and 82% above the national average.

Top 10 states most affected overall by phishing scams:

1. Nevada
2. District of Columbia
3. New Jersey
4. California
5. New York
6. Florida
7. New Hampshire
8. Washington
9. Illinois
10. Wyoming

Editorial Note: This story was originally published on Forbes Advisor.