Minnesota Shoppers More At Risk For Holiday Shopping Scams
If you're doing any online holiday shopping, here's a heads-up that Minnesota is one of the states more at risk for online scams this year.
Shopping online is incredibly easy, convenient and is something that many of us here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes will likely engage in at least once during the upcoming holiday season.
But there's a new survey out that says the risk of getting ensnared in an online shopping scam during the holidays is greater here in the Gopher State than in many other this year.
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That's the word, anyway, from this holiday shopping survey from Social Catfish. They're a company dedicated to preventing online scams, and they noted that online shopping is be BIG business again this year, with Americans expected to spend a record $209.7 billion online shopping this holiday season.
However, another big number is the record $5.9 billion that just under 6 million Americans lost to various types of online scams in 2021 according to the Federal Trade Commission.
And in its 2023 survey, Minnesota is a state where you're more likely to encounter an online scam while you're doing some of that holiday shopping this year. The North Star State is ranked #21 this year on Social Catfish's States With The Most Online Shopping Scams list.
The survey said there are 7.9 online scams reported per 100,000 residents here in the Bold North this year, with a total of 4,104 scams reported. Over behind the Cheddar Curtain in Wisconsin (which is ranked 22nd on the list), there were 7.4 online scams reported per 100,000 residents, with 4,208 total online scams reported.
Meanwhile, down in Iowa, things are a little better this year. They're ranked 36th on the list, with 62.9 online scams reported per 100,000 residents, with a total of just 2,007 total scams.
Social Catfish says scammers unveil new tactics and methods able to fool even the savviest of Internet shoppers including non-delivery and non-payment scams, fake websites, credit card fraud, identity theft, and more.
You can read more about just which are the most common holiday scams HERE, and keep scrolling to take a walk down memory lane to see what the hottest toys were during each Christmas season when we were growing up!
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LOOK: The top holiday toys from the year you were born
Gallery Credit: Jacob Osborn & Peter Richman
