Pennsylvania again ranked in the top 10 states for internet crime last year, according to the FBI’s 2021 Internet Crime Complaint Center report. Victims’ losses totaled $207 million, up 90% over 2020. The number of victims of internet crimes in Pennsylvania dropped slightly to 17,262.
The IC3 report showed real estate/rental-related internet victim losses nationwide jumped to more than $350 million in 2021, up from $213 million in 2020.
Business email compromise, which are scams targeting both businesses and individuals performing transfers of funds, remained the highest loss reported, with nearly $2.4 billion lost nationwide last year.
“We really have seen fraud expanding more into rental properties, especially short-term rentals,” said Sean Stajkowski, Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center intelligence analyst II with the Pennsylvania State Police. “We’re seeing cases where someone lists a property they don’t own, then consumers put a deposit down on it, but the money isn’t going to a legitimate rental property owner.”
The rising prices of homes have also added to the opportunity for crime. “The price of real estate has gone up significantly so there’s an even better reward if a criminal can convince the buyer or seller to wire money to a fraudulent account,” he added.
Stajkowski stressed that it’s important for real estate professionals to warn their clients about the potential for scams during the real estate transaction. “When we purchased a home, our agent warned us that if we received any email requesting a payment that we should call her immediately before transferring money. She made sure we were extremely aware of potential fraud. She said we should be suspicious of anything we didn’t request, like additional insurance, odd emails and even traditional mail.”