Consumer Alert
Be proud, report scams
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Pride is all about celebrating who you are —proudly, without shame. This Pride, use your voice to talk to your friends and family about spotting and avoiding scams. So, how can you show your Pride and get the conversation started?
Here are some ideas — for this month or any day of the year.
- Talk about scams that target the LGBTQ+ community. Scammers see everyone as potential targets. But they also know that, sometimes, we can be more trusting of those in our own communities — or who seem to be. For example, scammers have used LGBTQ+ dating apps for extortion scams.
- Know your rights. Under federal law, it’s illegal for banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, retailers, or any other companies that extend credit to discriminate against you. So, during the application process or when making a credit decision, a creditor must not consider — among other things — your race or sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Report scams and bad business practices. However you have these conversations — during a parade, over a camp fire, or in your living room — encourage your friends and family to report scams and bad business practices (like credit discrimination) to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Stay in the loop on the latest scams to share with your friends and family. Sign up at ftc.gov/ConsumerAlerts.
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 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.
Can you explain the difference between federal laws against discrimination based on sexual and gender identity versus state laws? According to the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), Wisconsin law is interpreted in a way that does not protect sexual and gender identity in credit and lending.
In reply to Can you explain the… by Dani Sherman
I am afraid to speak. I'm the victim in Winnipeg Manitoba and if you get a different message it isn't me. I've blocked all cookies to get to this website. I currently using chat on my Samsung smartphone a13 sm 5u.
My life is always letting know of people that imperator me an stolen items yes find them please thank you
I HAVE reported a particular scam, even reporting to the FBI, FTC, and my state's Attorneys General. It's been a while and NO ONE EVER does anything. Are you sure all of you are legitimate? I am beginning to wonder. Theis particular scam never ends. Up to 50 calls per day and 4 1/2 years of it. It is about to put me in an insane asylum. You people are frauds! Do nothing is what you are about. Make yourselves look good but DO NOTHING! When Trump comes back, I will bring this up to him and all of you will be in deep trouble! I simply cannot take anymnore!
I'm a faithful Christian and i believe that speaks for me.
Trying to provide very significant facts, activity and fraud- BIG TIME, yet your own site is D.O.A. and raises suspicions of it's own!!!
Yes
I tried the website ReportFraud.ftc.gov today. IT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!!
In reply to I tried the website… by Donaphine L Shamburg
Sometimes, web intruders spoof the website to make it appear to be the legitimate FTC website. Don't give up trying and make sure your browser settings are set up to show entire website name
LOVE this! I will continue to be so thankful for all of you. Finally see the light and I know you guys can gettum