Fraudsters target consumers in all sorts of ways, the most common being imposter scams. Examples include romance scams, bogus crisis phone calls from a “grandchild” or text messages that seem to be from Social Security or law enforcement.
Fraud is when someone uses deception for personal or financial gain. By far, the most common type of fraud is the imposter scam, where someone represents themselves as someone they are not to extract money or personal information from their victim.
Consumers lost a total of $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, $2.33 billion of which was to imposter scams alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The biggest financial losses per consumer came from investment-related scams, where the median loss was $3,000. The most common way to contact potential victims was by phone.
So what, exactly are these scams? And how can you protect yourself?
