By phone, email and online, cyber scams have infiltrated every inch of digital life, causing untold damage to those who fall victim to scammers’ tricks.

The U.S. experienced a 24% rise in scams in 2020 compared to 2019 and 85% of scam victims lost money, a Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers and Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado news release announced. Americans lost close to $145 million to COVID-19 linked fraud alone.

Now, the two local organizations, are teaming up to help educate the community on how to stay vigilant against cybercrime and digital scammers.

“The best way to thwart cyber crime and stop members of our community from becoming victims of the numerous financial scams online is through education and awareness,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said in the joint release. “We are very pleased that these two local citizen and business protection organizations are working together to help bring attention to online scams and deceptive business practices.”

One tool Crime Stoppers and the BBB are using to combat cybercrime is Scam Tracker. On Scam Tracker, users can go online and report scams or check and see if a scam has already been identified.

Scam Tracker includes a map of when and where scams occurred across the globe, how much money victims lost, as well as the details of the crime.

In Colorado the map showed more than 4,000 reported scams since 2015, some included COVID-19 scams.

Reported losses ranged from about $50 to a deceptive online store to thousands of dollars.

“This company posted their advertisement on Facebook using the name ‘upmygear.com’ selling face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the user reported on Scam Tracker, adding. “When you check out their website you will see they use a bogus address in Madisonville, Ky., with four-digit zip code (instead of five) and an 11-digit phone number (instead of 10-digit).

“I was going to report all the sites using this same bogus address & phone number, but there’s just too many to report.”

The issue of digital scams and cybercrime is rampant so the Better Business Bureau posted tips for users on how to avoid scams such as resisting the pressure to act immediately, avoiding clicking on links or attachments in unsolicited emails and never sharing personal information.

“We hope our citizens and businesses will use Crime Stoppers resources to help report and ultimately alleviate crimes in the Pikes Peak region,” said Jonathan Liebert, CEO and executive director of Better Business Bureau.