GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Better Business Bureau has released their annual report listing the riskiest scams of 2019.
“Every year the BBB comes out with our annual risk report,” says Susan Bach of the Better Business Bureau, “Data that has been collected by our Scamtracker website, which is a self-reporting website for consumers if they’ve been contacted by a scammer.”
The top scam of last year didn’t come as much of a surprise for Bach, but the second-place finisher did raise some eyebrows.
“The number one riskiest scam last year were employment scams, which have actually been at the top of our list for several years now,” Bach says, “Our first scam for cryptocurrency was in 2018, so the fact that it jumped to number two after only its second year on the list is pretty amazing.”
The cryptocurrency scams can happen in several different ways – including tricking consumers into investing in a fake online coin or forcing them to give up personal information in order to gain access to a non-existent currency.
But the price tags on the employment scams seem to be what drove them once again to a distant first place finish.
“Last year, the median dollar loss for an employment scam was $1,500. Which is pretty high compared to other scams on that list,” Bach says.
The risk index operates a bit differently than some might think. It doesn’t simply spit out data and numbers entered into a report database.
“A risk index is a little different than just giving raw numbers about the number of scams reported and things like that,” Bach tells WTAQ News, “It measures the number of reports that we received, so the frequency – susceptibility, the number of times the reported individual actually lost money or fell for the scam – and if they did, what was the median dollar loss?”
For a closer look at the number, check out the BBB’s Scam Tracker Risk Report.
