The FBI reports cybercrimes are up 62% from 2019 levels, and since then, losses from internet scams have more than tripled, coming in at $12.5 billion last year. Montana is not immune to the threat. In 2023, the state ranked No. 7 nationwide for highest losses per capita.

“I think that sometimes people think being kind of a smaller state in population, that maybe these things aren’t really happening here, but they are,” Blair Stapleton told NBC Montana.