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Every day, the FTC is collecting data, watching the numbers, and spotting the trends. We’re also spreading the word about COVID-19-related scams. Because, the more you know about what’s happening, the easier it will be to protect yourself and others from these scams.

So far, we have gotten more than 175,000 COVID-19-related reports about fraud, identity theft, Do Not Call, and other consumer protection problems. You can find out about trends in your own community by clicking on your state, but recent national data shows that online shopping is the #1 fraud complaint and has caused $16 million in reported losses. These are scams that trick people into ordering products like masks, hand sanitizer, and other high-demand items that never arrive. People are also reporting scam text messages related to bogus offers to earn income, phony economic relief programs, fake charities, and government imposters.

As part of broader trend, the overall number of Do Not Call complaints are starting to pick up again after months of declining. As the scammers take to the phones again, you can expect to see an uptick in popular phone scams, like government imposter scams that exploit the pandemic or economic stimulus programs.

To help you stay ahead of these scams, keep these tips in mind and pass them along to family, friends, and your community:

  • Before you order from an unfamiliar online store, check out the company or product online first. Then pay by credit card, so you can dispute the billing error, report it to your credit card company, and get your money back if something goes wrong.
  • Don’t pay money or give out your personal information in response to calls, emails, or texts that say they’re from the government. The government will never call out of the blue to ask for money or your personal information (like Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers).

Keep up with the latest scams, and what the FTC is doing, by signing up to get Consumer Alerts. And please keep reporting what you’re seeing at ftc.gov/complaint.

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It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

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.

Bcampbe
August 26, 2020
Thank you for all your alerts and comments they are very useful and they save a lot of us a lot of headaches
Michael …
August 26, 2020
I'm so glad that I read about this "Do Not Call" complaint. I'm not going to fall for any thing that I didn't call for. Or anything else, that I read above. Like I've mentioned before, I don't trust anybody. I've heard on the TV too many times, where there's been people being scramed. By sending in money in the wrong places.
Carol WeavDon'…
August 26, 2020
Why can't something be done with all these Robo calls? I get like 10 - 12 a day home phone & cell
taptap
August 26, 2020
thank you, FTC!!! for ALL you do.
JoS
August 28, 2020
I just wish these horrid scammers would get a legitimate job instead of ruining people’s lives
hamurham@
August 30, 2020
I just posted a comment about scammers. It was a warning and people should learn from it. Unfortunately, I couldn't post it, because they want me to log in (log in page not provided) and they put a "captha" on it. This supposed to be an agency working together with the federal government, but when they block honest and important information, they're doing the opposit: aiding scammers. That's a shame. Now I know, that this coment won't be posted, either, but at least I let this agency know, that people don't think, that this kind of the tratment is "accedental". The "reCAPTCHA" isn't workink. Why am I not suprised?