Imposter Scams Top Complaints Made to FTC in 2018

For the first time, imposter scams topped the list of consumer complaints submitted in 2018 to the Federal Trade Commissions nationwide Consumer Sentinel database , driven in part by a jump in reports about government imposter scams.

Metadata
Provider: 
FTCFTC
URL: 
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/02/imposter-scams-top-complaints-made-ftc-2018https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/02/imposter-scams-top-complaints-made-ftc-2018
Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Information
Tags: 
Fraud, Corporate crime, Federal Trade Commission, Security, Identity theft, Consumer complaint, Human behavior, Crime, Mass marketing fraud
Summary
Key Points: 
  • For the first time, imposter scams topped the list of consumer complaints submitted in 2018 to the Federal Trade Commissions nationwide Consumer Sentinel database , driven in part by a jump in reports about government imposter scams.
  • Government imposter scams made up nearly half of the 535,417 imposter scam reports to the FTC in 2018.
  • In all, the FTC received nearly three million complaints from consumers in 2018.
  • Identity theft was the third most common complaint, and consistently ranks among the top consumer complaints made to the FTC.
Copyright: 
2019 FTC. All Rights Reserved.