Tag: Imposter

"I've had the blues, the reds, and the pinks. One thing’s for sure: Love stinks." Far be it from us to criticize love on Valentine’s Day, but “Love Stinks” – the 80s hit by the J. Geils Band –...

The FTC just issued its 2023 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book jam-packed with facts about the kind of scams consumers have reported to us. Has the reported dollar amount lost to fraud gone up or...

Thanks to improvements in text-to-speech AI, voice cloning holds promise for consumers, but scammers often find a way to twist tech advancements for their nefarious purposes – and voice cloning is no...

If you’ll be seeing college-age relatives over the holidays, warn them about a variation on the “job interview” scam that students looking for summer or permanent employment have reported to us. And...

As text-to-speech AI has improved, so has voice cloning technology. The prospects could be promising, but from the FTC’s perspective, voice cloning also presents serious consumer protection concerns...

We’ve warned professionals about online job scams involving phony “recruiters” who falsely claim to represent big-name businesses. Employment impersonators are still at it, but this time they’re...

Preparing for an emergency used to be an easier task for small businesses. Coastal companies could plan for hurricane season and northern businesses could expect a blizzard or two every winter. But...

There’s a scam targeting doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, but you could be a part of the cure.

You’ve heard about scammers impersonating government agencies, global retailers, and even members of your family. The latest variation on the scheme targets business professionals, luring them in with...

There’s a new scheme that involves imposters preying on people who are grieving the loss of a loved one. The imposters pretend to be from the funeral home and say that, unless the family pays more...

According to reports in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel database, text message scams took consumers for $330 million in 2022. The latest Consumer Protection Data Spotlight focuses on this form of fraud...

You may have heard of simulation theory, the notion that nothing is real and we’re all part of a giant computer program. Let’s assume at least for the length of this blog post that this notion is...

There are prime numbers, irrational numbers, and Fibonacci’s numbers – but from a consumer protection perspective, no number is quite as sobering as the dollar amount that people reported losing to...

Romance scammers tell all sorts of lies to steal your heart and money, and reports to the FTC show those lies are working. Last year’s romance scam numbers looked a lot like 2021 all over again, and...

“Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah. Roma, roma-ma. Gaga, ooh-la-la. Want your bad romance.” This Valentine’s Day if you find yourself gaga over an online love, the Federal Trade Commission – yes, the FTC – has advice...

Every year countless people are bilked by impersonation scams. Since 2018, the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network has received approximately 3 million reports of impersonation scams citing losses of more...

Millions of Americans look to Walmart as their go-to place to pick up essentials. According to a complaint filed by the FTC, among the people who have come to rely on Walmart for their day-to-day...

Let’s call it The Recliner Interval – the time it takes for an obscure niche product to start running prime time TV commercials. It’s a made-up metric, of course, but a few hours in front of the TV...

T he FTC has proposed some changes to the T elemarketing Sales Rule and would like your feedback. But that’s not all. Commenters raised a number of other issues about TSR compliance and enforcement...

Gift cards may be at the top of your holiday gift giving list. But there’s another list that gift cards top , and it’s decidedly less festive. According to the FTC’s latest Consumer Protection Data...