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Congratulations students and parents! It won’t be long before young people across the country will put on their caps and gowns to celebrate their graduations. Many graduation speakers offer advice, some based on their own life experiences. The FTC has some practical advice to offer, too.

April is Financial Literacy Month and a great time to start planning for your financial future. The FTC has a library of free consumer materials, including a blog and media room, to help you make the most of your money and avoid costly scams.

Check out consumer.gov for basic, easy-to-read tips on budgeting, getting credit, renting a place to live, dealing with identity theft, and buying a car. And if you’re looking for a job, scammers may be looking for you. Some job placement firms misrepresent their services, promote nonexistent vacancies, or charge high fees in advance for services that don’t guarantee placement.

Speaking of scams, you might be surprised to learn that, according to recently released FTC data, younger people reported losing money to fraud more often than older people. It’s what the data has been telling us for a while, but it’s hard for people to grasp. Last year, based on those who reported fraud and gave us their age, 43% of people in their 20s reported a loss to that fraud, while only 15% of people in their 70s did. Check out 10 Things You Can Do to Avoid Fraud to help stay a step ahead of the scammers.

We’re glad you stopped by, and hope you visit again. Here are a few other ways to stay connected for the latest news and information from the FTC:

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

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