A consumer in West Virginia is more likely to be a victim of e-commerce fraud than in the other 49 states, according to a new study from Forter, which sells fraud prevention services. North Dakota, meanwhile, offers the most apparent safety for consumers making purchases online, at least judging by e-commerce fraud rates.

The e-commerce fraud rate in West Virginia stands at 2.11%, the analysis finds. According to another analysis, this one from Cybersource, the North American online fraud rate stands at 0.9%.

“Overall, the study focuses on where it’s best to live if you don’t want to be a victim of fraud,” a Forter spokeswoman says. “This is based on the billing address associated with the credit cards used to commit fraud, since it’s generally true to say that the billing address on the card represents the address of the card owner.”

The other top 10 states for e-commerce fraud are:

• Delaware, 2.08%

• Minnesota, 2.02%

• Arkansas, 1.80%

• Nevada, 1.63%

• Iowa, 1.58%

• Utah, 1.52%

• Texas, 1.50%

• Oklahoma, 1.50%

• Michigan, 1.48%

The findings are based on a six-month sample of “hundreds of thousands of transactions from a mix of large independent online merchants, mostly from lifestyle, luxury, personal electronics and food industries,” a spokesman says. The study focuses on purchases by criminals who “shop from and ship to the same state.”

Besides North Dakota, which registered a 0.00% e-commerce fraud rate, the following states (and one federal district) round out the top 10 for low levels of online fraud:

• New Mexico, 0.36%

• Rhode Island, 0.38%

• District of Columbia, 0.38%

• Tennessee, 0.39%

• Mississippi, 0.46%

• New Hampshire, 0.48%

• Connecticut, 0.62%

• Maryland, 0.65%

• Washington, 0.65%

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