When you get ripped off online, during a pandemic, it just makes you feel more helpless. At least we weren't scammed as bad as California.

A new report lists Colorado at #10 of states with the most lost to cybercrime in 2020, during the COVI-19 pandemic, with over $100,000,000 leaving our accounts and flowing into the hackers/con-artists pockets.

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That figure comes out to be about $16,000,000 lost by every person living in Colorado, based on 2019 statistics (5.76 million people.) I would freak out if I was scammed out of $16.00, let alone $16 million.

The domain names come pretty cheaply, which is what helps the criminals pull of the scams. Even '.org' is not safe. I don't why I think .org sites should be safer, they just seem more official; maybe I'm not alone, and that's just another part of the problem.

The report showed that the criminals didn't waste much time after registering their phishing sites before getting to business; five days was the average time between getting the site and begining to scam.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which had so many people staying home, saw a 70% increase in cybercrime over 2019's numbers. Talk about 'fishing,' it's like they were 'shooting fish in a barrel.'  By the time the end of 2020 rolled around, there were over 637,000 phishing sites out there on the web. They caught a lot, I'd say.

Californians lost the most of U.S. states, with more than six times the losses of Colorado, at over $620 million.

Though the pandemic is lessening, cybercrimes aren't just going to go away, those scammers are diligent. We all need to be on the lookout for 'fishy'-looking emails. When it doubt, don't open it. If you are concerned, go to that company's official website or call their customer support line. Better to spend a couple of minutes than to lose thousands of dollars.

Get more on the TechRadar report HERE.

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