(The Center Square) – A new study ranks Illinois sixth in the nation for investment fraud, with the state seeing dramatic increases in recent years.
Carlson Law reported that Illinois residents lost $137.1 million to investment scams in 2023.
According to Carlson Law founder Chase Carlson, investment fraud is skyrocketing in the United States.
“What we’re seeing is, yes, $137 million reported losses in Illinois, but I would like to tell you that the number is probably far higher because so much of it goes unreported,” Carlson told The Center Square.
The study analyzed data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center from 2018 to 2023.
Carlson said the amount of money Illinoisans lost went up 74% from 2022 to 2023.
“Illinois had one of the largest growth rates in the country. The amount of fraud in Illinois went up a lot compared to other states, like Florida went up 1.5%, California 13%. That is one interesting outlier, that Illinois had a huge increase from the year before,” Carlson said.
Carlson said the increase is largely tied to cryptocurrency scams and artificial intelligence deepfake videos.
The report states that the average loss per victim was $146,005.
Carlson said he gets calls all day long from people who lost their life savings due to investment fraud.
“It’s sad. A lot of it is going to be older people. The new trend, though, is that it’s actually a lot of young people that are losing money in scams because of this cryptocurrency stuff,” Carlson said.
Carlson reported that tech-savvy millennials, ages 31 to 45, filed more investment scam FBI complaints than any generation due to their interest in trading crypto.
Investors should look out for things that are too good to be true, such as huge promises of returns or guarantees, Carlson said.
“When people say that there’s a high return but low risk, typically, those types of products don’t actually exist,” he said.
Carlson advised checking for licenses on regulatory websites and not doing business with people only through the internet.
“Lately, we’re seeing a ton of people see ads on Facebook. They’re clicking them and getting brought into investment groups that turn out to be scams or they’re getting random text messages to invest in things,” Carlson said.
Carlson also warned of scammers who pretend to work for large investment firms.
While Illinois ranked sixth among states with the most investment fraud, two neighboring states, Iowa (#14) and Kentucky (#16), ranked among states with the least investment fraud.
The states with the most investment fraud were California, Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey.
According to the FBI, investment fraud is now the costliest type of fraud in America. A record 39,570 victims lost a record $4.57 billion in 2023.
In 2018, 3,693 victims lost $253 million.
