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Report: Nevada Ranks Among
Worst States for Internet Crime
4/7/08 - CARSON CITY, NV– Nevada ranked
among the worst states for Internet scams last year, according
to a government study.
The state ranked second in the nation per capita
for perpetrators and fifth per capita for victims, the report
by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center found.
The study estimated that Nevada had 64.5 perpetrators
per 100,000 people, which trailed only the Disrict of Columbia.
It also found the state had nearly 82 complaints per 100,000
people.
Nevada Deputy Attorney General Ernest Figueroa
attributed the state's ranking in part to its transient population.
"If you're the type of person who is moving
from population center to population center, you're not going
to be aware of the local scams out there," he told the
Reno Gazette-Journal.
"When you have a 24-hour city, you have
to blanket every means of mass communcation to try to get
the word out," he added.
Pet and check scams, and auction frauds are
common in Nevada, Figueroa said.
"These scams are very successful and they're
proven to work," he said.
But Figueroa warned that the report only looks
at where scammers said they operate. Scam artists could say
they operate from popular destinations such as Las Vegas in
order to gain credibility when they actually work from outside
the U.S., he said.
"You could say you're from anywhere,"
Figueroa said. "No one really knows until you invest
some resources to figure out where it's coming from."
Money lost in Internet crimes hit a new record
high last year, topping about $240 million partly because
of increases in scams involving pets, check-cashing schemes
and online dating, according to the report.
The number of reported Internet scams dropped
slightly from previous years, but the total lost jumped by
$40 million.
The report, based on data from the Internet
Crime Complaint Center, shows that more men than women were
scammed over the Internet.
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