DENVER (KDVR) — Coloradans are a top target for fraudsters, according to a breakdown of the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report by Tipalti, a company that provides financial operations software.

Throughout the U.S., cybercrime has increased during the past couple of years, according to the FBI.

The FBI has reported the potential total loss for internet fraud has grown from $6.9 billion in 2021 to more than $10.2 billion for the U.S. in 2022.

Perhaps surprisingly, Tipalti calculated that the state with the highest financial fraud rate is Nevada (286 victims per 100,000 people), followed by Delaware (228 victims per 100,000 individuals), Alaska (210 per 100,000 people) and California (207 financial crime victims per 100,000 residents).

Colorado isn’t far behind in fifth place, with 200 fraud victims reported per 100,000 Coloradans. In 2022, the most reported crime was non-payment/non-delivery of a purchased item or service, which occurs whenever someone either provides goods or services with no repayment or when a good or service is purchased but never delivered to the purchaser.

According to FBI data, 1,156 Colorado residents lost funds through this scam. Another 1,083 reported they were part of a personal data breach, and 898 reported they were victims of extortion.

Coloradans are victims of business fraud

The highest losses were from investment fraud and Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams. Coloradans reported losing a total of almost $54 million through BEC fraud, and almost $58.5 million stolen through investment fraud schemes.

The top five states with the lowest financial fraud rates are Mississippi (69 per 100,000), Kansas (82), North Dakota (90), Iowa (92) and Louisiana (94). Another $15.9 million was reported stolen through tech support schemes and over $14 million was taken through romance or confidence schemes, which play on victims’ emotions.

The most common financial fraud is phishing — tricking people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware onto their devices. Almost 300,500 Americans fell victim to phishing in 2022, according to FBI data. Personal data breaches accounted for the second-most common type of financial fraud and non-payment/non-delivery was the third most common.

Overall, 11,683 Coloradans reported they were victims of an internet crime in 2022. The state was 14th for the number of reports (from 3,240 individuals), with California taking first place with over 80,700 reports (from 43,970 people).

Colorado victims reported a total loss of $178.4 million — the 16th most money stolen per state. California once again took the dubious honor of first place with over $2 billion stolen from residents.