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Fairfield, CT

CT BBB Releases 2022 Risk Report

CROMWELL, Conn. — Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut received more than 400 scam reports to BBB’s Scam Tracker in 2022, nearly 90 more than the previous year. Close to $234,000 was reported lost to scams by CT residents. Online scams/counterfeit products accounted for 37% of the scams reported by Connecticut consumers last year. Phishing scams, which surged during the holidays as imposters tried to steal money and credit card information from consumers just trying to get their packages delivered on time, were the second most common scam in Connecticut. Employment scams rounded out the top three statewide.
 
As more of the workforce was ordered to return to the office, people went online to look for work-from-home (WFH) jobs, but what they found were scams. One Danbury woman reported that she thought she’d found the perfect WFH opportunity doing data entry for a national healthcare company. It turned out that her new employer was really an imposter. The victim reported that she was sent a $4,000 check for the equipment she’d need to work from home and ordered to wire half of it to vendors. She was later notified that the check was a fake, and that she’d been wiring her own money out of her bank account and into the pockets of a con artist.
 
“I was disappointed, I couldn’t believe I fell for this cause you get so excited.  Now, I’m just very very leery. It’s scary. Everything looked legit,” said the Danbury woman.
 
The Costliest Scams
 
While the average loss to scams in Connecticut was $572, two types of scams proved more costly, causing the average victim to lose thousands of dollars last year: home improvement and cryptocurrency. 
 
Those targeted by home improvement scams lost $7,545 on average. One Granby resident told Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut that she wishes she’d done more research and checked references. She accused her contractor of collecting nearly $100,000 from her insurance before skipping out on the project. 
 
“I was so stressed out. I was just mad, felt betrayed, and very angry,” the woman told BBB Serving Connecticut.
 
Just like the previous year, cryptocurrency scams proved costly to victims, whose losses averaged just under $5,000 in 2022. One Suffield resident told our office that he was lured into an investment scam by a former classmate who claimed to have invented a bot that could double his money week after week. 
 
“You scam a person you’ve never met, that’s bad enough, but to scam a person who is a childhood friend that definitely hurt, it hurt my relationships, it hurt my work,” said the victim who reported going negative in his bank account after the investment didn’t pay off.
 
The victim says he was hired by his friend as a “scouting professional,” recruiting upwards of 40 people to invest within five weeks, before realizing it was all just a scam.
 
“I was really upset. I was really sad by the whole thing,” he said of his involvement.
 
Investigations on the Rise
 
In 2022, BBB Serving CT completed 28 investigations, nearly twice as many as 2021. A quarter of those investigations were focused on employment scams that targeted consumers in a dozen states. An investigation into the reshipping company Delta Vision led the job posting site Indeed to reject all posts by the scam company on its platform. A total of 53 reports of employment scams from companies claiming to have Connecticut headquarters came into the BBB Scam Tracker. BBB received an additional 30 reports from Connecticut residents who were targeted by companies claiming to be located in other states.
 
National BBB Risk Report Shows Employment Scams Climbed to Second Riskiest in 2022
 
Employment scam reports submitted to BBB Scam Tracker were up 23% nationwide last year with a median dollar loss of $1,500, tying home improvement scams for the largest average loss. The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust's 2022 Scam Tracker Risk Report determines the riskiest scams by measuring how likely consumers are to be targeted by a particular scam, the odds they’ll lose money when exposed to that scam, and the magnitude of the loss. Online purchase (shopping) scams remained the #1 riskiest scam type in 2022. 
 
Key National Findings:
  • More people reported losing money when targeted by a website, social media, or email than other contact methods.
  • Those who were targeted in person reported losing the largest amount of money ($715), followed by text message ($579) and phone ($550).
  • Text message scams increased 40% percent.
  • Scams perpetrated online were more likely to result in a monetary loss, compared with scams being targeted by phone or in person.
  • Credit cards remained the most reported payment method with a monetary loss, followed by online payment systems.
  • The payment methods with the highest median dollar loss were wire transfer ($2,700), check ($1,277), and cryptocurrency ($1,135).
 
 The five most impersonated organizations reported to BBB Scam Tracker in 2022:
 
1. Amazon
2. Geek Squad
3. Publishers Clearing House
4. U.S. Postal Service 
5. Norton 
 
*For the first time, the Social Security Administration and IRS did not make the top 10 list.
 Several of those targeted by scams in Connecticut have agreed to speak with the media. Please contact Director of Communications, Kristen Johnson, to set up an interview. 
 
RESOURCES
 
For more highlights from the 2022 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report, visit BBBMarketplaceTrust.org/RiskReport. 
 
Go to BBB.org/ScamTracker to report a scam, learn more about other risky scams on BBB.org/ScamTips and visit our news feed.
 
ABOUT THE BBB INSTITUTE FOR MARKETPLACE TRUST
 
The BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust (BBB Institute) is the educational foundation of the Better Business Bureau. Their mission is to educate and protect consumers, promote best practices for businesses, and solve complex marketplace problems. Their consumer educational programs, which include a wide array of resources on fraud prevention and education, are delivered digitally and in person by BBBs serving communities across the United States and Canada. You can find more information about BBB Institute and its programs at BBBMarketplaceTrust.org.
 
ABOUT BBB SCAM TRACKER BBB Scam Tracker 
 
(BBB.org/ScamTracker) is an online platform that enables consumers and businesses to report attempted and successful acts of fraud. The platform also enables people to search the scam reports to help determine if they are being targeted by a scam. The platform was upgraded in 2022 with support from Amazon and Capital One.
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Submitted by Fairfield, CT

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