Recognize an FTC Impersonator

Scammers tell lots of different stories to try to get your money or personal information. They want you to hurry and do what they say before you have time to think, check out their story, or reach out to someone who might intervene. That’s where the FTC’s new tool, How I’ll Avoid a Scam: My Action Plan, can help.

You might have heard that, last week, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the FTC’s charges that it enrolled millions of people in Prime subscriptions without their consent – and then made it hard for those unwilling Prime subscribers to cancel. Since $1.5 billion of that amount goes back to consumers, you might be wondering: who gets it? How? And what do I need to do?

Do you get a lot of calls trying to sell you products or services you never asked for? Sometimes telemarketing calls are random. Other times, companies trick you into sharing your information so they can sell it to the telemarketers that call you (without your permission). If you’re on the Do Not Call Registry, these calls are illegal. So, how can you cut down on the number of unwanted telemarketing calls you get?