2024 WAS A GOOD YEAR FOR SCAMMERS IN YAVAPAI COUNTY: $5.4 MILLION LOST

Published on February 26, 2025

If you wonder why YCSO puts out so much information on scams and fraud, here's why: last year, county residents we serve lost more than $5 million to scammers! It was likely a lot more than that -- many victims never report the scam because they are embarrassed or ashamed of falling for the con job.

In 2024, YCSO received almost 550 calls for "fraud" (which includes all kinds of scams). Not every call involved someone actually losing money, but nearly 250 victims lost a total of about $5.4 million in this county (that's an average of more than $22,000 per scam). The vast majority of those funds can never be recovered, mainly due to the way the victims paid the con man (cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, pre-loaded gift cards, and wire transfers are the worst). And these numbers are only for the UNINCORPORATED areas of Yavapai county. Many more folks lost a lot of money to fraudsters in the cities and towns that have their own local law enforcement agencies.

And already in 2025, YCSO has received reports of more than $350,000 lost to scammers. The trend is going in the wrong direction. We need everyone's help in order to stop these rip-off artists from finding more victims in our county. What can you do? First, protect yourself from scams by becoming educated in how these folks operate and the details about their ongoing fraud attempts. Also, share the information you receive with your family, friends, neighbors and others in the community. We cannot reach everyone ourselves, but word-of-mouth sharing is a powerful tool.

YCSO has available a free in-person public presentation on Scams and Frauds. It is led by Fraud Investigations Unit member Ron Norfleet, and it includes how to protect yourself from scammers and what types of scams are ongoing in Yavapai county. Norfleet has fielded calls from many victims, some of whom have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the con artists. Don't become their next victim.

If your civic, community, HOA, or church group (or others like senior living facilities or 55+ communities) would like to schedule this presentation, please call us at (928) 554-8704 or at (928) 771-3299. Attendance at these presentations has skyrocketed in recent weeks, as scammers step up their game in Yavapai county. 

Remember, NEVER send payment by any means to people you do not know personally and have never met in person, and NEVER click on links in text messages and emails which make claims like "your bank account has been compromised and we can fix it" or "your package cannot be delivered and we need your information" or "we noticed a charge for _______ on your account; if you didn't make this purchase, click here". And the list goes on and on.

Scammers play on your emotions like fear ("your loved one is in jail and needs your money to get them out" or "this is the police department and we are going to arrest you and take you to jail if you don't pay this old fine right now") or even love (Arizona is #1 in the USA for romance scams). Don't fall for it. Don't answer the phone (or, if you did, hang up immediately), delete the text or email without answering it, and don't communicate on social media with people you have never met.