The con artists are clicking “add to cart” on Georgia. A new analysis says we’ve lodged one of the nation’s highest rates of internet fraud — and 2024 was our worst year yet.

🖥️ What’s Happening: A study from Simmrin Law Group, using Federal Trade Commission data from 2020–2024, says Georgia ranks second nationally for internet-related fraud reports per capita. Researchers tallied an average of 1,577.6 reports per 100,000 residents in Georgia — about 55% above the national mark of 1,016.92 — with a record 228,925 reports filed here in 2024 and the fewest in 2020 at 128,439. The firm analyzed FTC fraud and identity-theft reports and normalized them by population across all 50 states.

🔎 Why It Matters: Scam losses drain savings, wreck credit, and chew up months of cleanup. If crooks see Georgia as easy pickings, they will keep picking.

🧩 Between The Lines: High fraud complaint rates can reflect both heavy victimization and high reporting. Either way, scammers are finding fertile ground — from fake package texts to “your account is locked” emails that land at the exact wrong moment in a busy day.

🧠 The Human Factor: While each fraud complaint represents a victim, it takes two sides to commit fraud. The fraudster and the person falling for the fraud, believing that a Nigerian prince of too-good-to-be-true famous person is going to send them money. Georgia consistently ranks low on a national scale in education, and this is another area where we see the impact of that on adults in the state. An informed resident is less likely to fall for a scam.

📬 Catch Up Quick: The FTC tracks fraud reports nationwide, including imposter scams, phishing, bogus online shopping, and fake tech support. This study pulled five years of those reports and calculated per-capita rates to rank states.

🌐 The Big Picture: The scams aren’t new; the size and impact is. Automated texts, spoofed caller IDs, and cloned websites let crooks run industrial-strength cons at neighborhood speed. If the Peach State turns out to be ripe, it’s because scammers know the script: pressure, urgency, and just enough polish to short-circuit skepticism.

📌 What You Can Do Now:

  • Pause before you tap. Verify shipping texts and bank alerts by going to the source — not the link.
  • Lock down logins. Unique passwords and multi-factor authentication kill a lot of cons on contact.
  • Report it. Your complaint helps the FTC and banks flag patterns — and keeps your neighbor from falling for the same play.

🗒️ The Sources:

  • Simmrin Law Group analysis of FTC fraud and identity theft reports (2020–2024): www.simmrinlawgroup.com
  • FTC Fraud and ID Theft Maps.
  • Dataset referenced by Simmrin Law Group.