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Floridians may have more to worry about when it comes to e-commerce billing fraud than residents in many other states, according to a new study by Experian which looked at shipping and billing fraud.
While Florida is the riskiest state when it comes to billing fraud, Delaware is a hot spot for shipping fraud. But they are not alone. Fraud in Oregon, California, New York, Georgia, Nevada and Puerto Rico are all over the national average.
On the flip side, the rest of the states are at or below average levels – and that's the good news. Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island weigh in with the least risk for shipping and billing fraud, and Wyoming, South Dakota and West Virginia are also in the clear.
Its all about where you live
Experian looked at millions of e-commerce transactions from 2015 finding that what state you live in makes a difference, and can increase or decrease your risk of being a victim of fraud. Why shipping and billing fraud specifically? With e-commerce on the rise there are more shipping and billing options available than ever before, and more of a chance that criminals will try to take advantage of consumers while they are shopping.
"Fraud follows the path of least resistance,” said Adam Fingersh, Experian general manager and senior vice president of Fraud & Identity Solutions. "E-commerce fraud is not confined to larger cities since fraudsters can ship items anywhere. With the switch to chip-enabled credit card transactions, and possible growth of card-not-present fraud, our fraud solutions help online businesses monitor their riskiest locations to prevent losses both in dollars and reputation in the near term."
The riskier states often include a big port-of-entry city, which is very much the case in Portland, Oregon, Washington D.C and Miami, indicating that one of the reasons they may have higher-than-average levels of fraud is due to the ability of cyber thieves to move their stolen wares more easily.
The zip code rankings and breakdown
Experian used the billing zip code of fraud victims to determine which states and cities had the most and least amount of risk, with Florida having the most fraud, followed by Delaware; Washington, D.C.; Oregon and California. Yet, when they looked at the most dangerous zip code for billing fraud it was not in any of these states. Eudora, Kansas (66025) came in on top, followed by zip codes in Miami (33178) and Boston (02210).
But what about shipping fraud? Delaware took the top spot here with Oregon, Florida, California and Nevada following behind. South El Monte, California (91733) took the top spot, followed by four zip codes in Miami.
Who has the least to worry about? That would be the people living in Defiance, Ohio (43512).
