Recognize an FTC Impersonator

Planning a trip? Need to book a flight, hotel, or something else for travel? Know that some companies tack on extra charges they make hard for you to see or bury in the fine print — hoping you won’t notice until it’s too late. Here’s how it happens.

Scammers impersonate well-known businesses or government agencies in ads in your social media feed, your search results, and on your favorite shopping platforms. They hope you’ll think they’re the real thing and click on their imposter ad. The FTC is exploring additional ways to help protect consumers from these ads and we want to hear from you.

During open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace (Nov. 1 – Jan. 15), you might feel like you’re seeing ads for health insurance plans everywhere you look and getting similar pitches over the phone. These ads and pitches can sometimes be misleading: they might promise things like comprehensive health insurance but actually offer limited benefits. Or be for medical discount cards and not health insurance at all. Other ads might look like they’re from the government or well-known insurance companies — but they’re really from impersonators trying to gain your trust.