Friday, January 03, 2020

12 Days of Scams Day 10: Mass Market Consumer Scams

Are we getting better at avoiding scams?

The Federal Trade Commission’s 2017 mass market consumer fraud survey report, at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/mass-market-consumer-fraud-united-states-2017-update/p105502massmarketconsumerfraud2017report.pdf, found that 40 million U. S.adults were victims of various kinds of such fraud that year. That’s almost 16% of the adult population.

These surveys are done periodically, and the scams with attendant losses are increasing. Some even became double victims of scams since almost 62 million scam efforts were reported as successful.

Of the victims in the 2017 survey, 62% purchased fraudulent products via the internet. Always checking for the security lock on the line with the website address is a way to lower the effectiveness of the scam.

Fraudulent weight loss products and computer repairs were the top areas for scams. The fake weight loss products also had the most repeat victims.

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