Perhaps it’s the trusting nature of Wyomingites that make them vulnerable to internet scams. In 2024, scammers stole more than $43 million from Wyoming residents, which is up $30 million from the prior year, a 230% spike.
This puts the Cowboy State in third place nationally for the greatest per capita losses, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Center’s latest report.
Of those losses, scams involving data breaches amounted to the largest loss at $21 million followed by investment fraud at $13 million. Wyoming follows the national trend with reported losses topping $16 billion nationally for a 33% increase in losses from 2023, the report states.
The FBI figures mirror those of CyberWyoming, a cyber security educational nonprofit, as losses to scams continue to increase each year and become increasingly more personal and targeted.
Data breaches, which accounted for the greatest monetary losses in Wyoming last year, can take a myriad of forms, according to Eric Burns, special agent with the FBI Denver office that oversees Wyoming.
Scammers retrieve a person’s personal data – including social security numbers – through a hack or data breach of some kind and use that information to open bank accounts, credit cards or take loans out in that person’s name.
Targeting Property Buyers
Burns couldn’t provide a list of the specific scams involving data breaches that targeted Wyomingites last year but said that most companies are good about reporting when their systems have been breached and contacting those impacted.
As for the types of fraud involving investment, Burns said those also run the gamut.
“It can be any type of investment, and there’s not a specific one that we’re seeing only that the high-return types of investments are what we see people falling for,” Burns said.
One of the more nefarious financial scams that Burns said he’s seen lately involves wire scams targeting real estate transactions.
In one case in Colorado last year, a woman was in the process of closing on her home and was set to wire the funds, Burns said. She received an email with wire instructions from what appeared to be the title company, and without thinking twice, sent the payment.
Two days later she learned that it wasn’t the title company who sent the email but rather she’d been scammed. She was out just shy of $1 million.
In that case, it was reported quickly, and the FBI was able to work with the financial institution to freeze the funds and recover almost all of the money, Burns said.
“We try to do that very quickly, but it all is dependent on reporting it to us quickly,” he said.
As to how the scammer would have known she was even in the throes of purchasing a property is part of the multi-layered approach by which cybercriminals operate. They might have compromised information from the title company or see some type of communication that announces their intent to buy a home.
These are sophisticated criminal groups operating mostly from overseas in a number of different countries, Burns said.
No Amount Too Small To Report
Burns suggests that anyone who has been scammed report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). It doesn’t matter if it’s $3 or $300,000, he said, because they take every report seriously.
The FBI has a recovery rate of about 66%, according to FBI Denver Public Affairs Officer, Vikki Migoya.
And despite the belief by many that the FBI only investigates crimes with high dollar amounts, Burns said that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“That’s a common misconception that it has to hit a certain dollar threshold in order for us to resource it, but that’s just not true,” Burns said.
In fact, he encourages everyone to report any scam even if they didn’t lose money because it can help law enforcement determine patterns both locally and across jurisdictions.
Ongoing Scams In Wyoming
One of the most prolific cybercrimes impacting Wyomingites this spring has been text messages spoofing law enforcement agencies to say there’s a warrant out for their arrest and to pay a fine or face jail time, Burns said.
In some cases, the scammer will even send what appears to be an official warrant complete with a judge’s signature. At least one Wyoming man is out $10,000 after wiring the money to the scammer.
A similar scam threatening jail time for missing jury duty is also circulating the state, with a Gillette man shelling out $11,000 in bitcoin to avoid arrest.
“It might not sound sophisticated, but people fall for it a lot because it’s an intimidation to them, and they feel like they just need to get this done and over with, so they don’t get arrested or further victimized,” Burns said.
Sextortion cases also continue to be a problem in Wyoming and elsewhere, Burns said. This is where fraudsters create fake accounts – many times adults impersonating teens – to attempt to lure them into relationships.
The scammer then requests that person to send them nude or other compromising photos and videos and then holds it against them by threatening to release the images to their family and friends.
All Ages Impacted
Though teens and 20-somethings have disproportionately been the targets of this sextortion, increasingly younger minors are being victimized, Burns said.
By and large, however, it’s the older demographic that are most impacted with Wyomingites between 40 to 49 reporting the highest number of cybercrimes at 479 complaints last year alone, according to the FBI report.
When it comes to the greatest losses, people 60 and older reported losing more than $8 million last year alone, according to the same data.
“This report is a sobering reminder that people in Wyoming remain prime targets for scammers who will jump at every opportunity to defraud potential victims,” said Mark Michalek, special agent in charge overseeing FBI operations in Wyoming.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
