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The FTC received fraud reports from more than 2.8 million consumers last year, with the most commonly reported category once again being imposter scams, followed by online shopping scams. Prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; internet services; and business and job opportunities rounded out the top five fraud categories.
Fighting Scams and Fraud As the nation’s consumer protection agency, the FTC takes reports about scammers that cheat people out of money and businesses that don’t make good on their promises. We share these reports with our law enforcement partners and use them to investigate fraud and eliminate unfair business practices.
Newly released Federal Trade Commission data shows that consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, an increase of more than 30 percent over the previous year. Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams—more than $3.8 billion—than any other category in 2022.
FTC Report to Congress Details Fraud Reports from Older Consumers (October 23, 2019) FTC Report Finds Some Small Business Web Hosting Services Could Leave Small Businesses at Risk of Facilitating Phishing Scams (February 20, 2018) Online Businesses Could Do More to Protect their Reputations and Prevent Consumers from Phishing Schemes (March 3 ...
The Federal Trade Commission has launched a new website, ReportFraud.ftc.gov, where consumers can easily report fraud and all other consumer issues directly to the FTC. At ReportFraud.ftc.gov, consumers will find a streamlined and user-friendly way to submit reports to the FTC about scams, frauds, and bad business practices.
Confronting Emerging Forms of Fraud: The FTC has taken steps to listen to consumers and build knowledge and tools to fight emerging frauds. For example, the FTC announced a challenge in 2023 to help promote the development of ideas to protect consumers from the misuse of artificial intelligence-enabled voice cloning for fraud and other harms.
[4] In 2021, adults ages 18-39 submitted fraud loss reports indicating social media as the contact method at a rate 2.4 times higher than adults 40 and over. About 92% (87,048 reports) of 2021 fraud loss reports indicating social media as the contact method included age information.
Of those who reported losing money to fraud in 2021, more than 95,000 indicated that they were first contacted on social media—more than twice the 2020 number. Investment scams topped the list of total reported dollar losses, followed by romance scams. The largest number of reports came from people who lost money to online shopping scams.
In a coordinated law enforcement initiative targeting con artists that prey on Internet auction users, the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the National Association of Attorneys General and other federal, state and local law enforcers today announced a three-pronged effort to stem the fraud faced by Internet auction-goers.
Online shopping was the second-most common fraud category reported by consumers, elevated by a surge of reports in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Internet services; prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; and telephone and mobile services rounded out the top five fraud categories.