Scammers speak your language. Whether you speak a language from Arabic to Vietnamese, or the language of college students or veterans to older adults — scammers know it fluently. With National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) right around the corner (March 3-9, 2024), it’s a great time to help people in your community speak up and speak out in your language. And the FTC is here to help you do just that and start planning your NCPW celebration.
Every NCPW, government agencies, consumer protection groups, and people like you work together to share information about consumer rights and to help people learn to spot, avoid, and report scams. This year, the FTC can offer materials — and reporting — in many languages to help you bring NCPW 2024 to your family, friends, neighbors, and community members in whatever language they speak. Here are some ways to help you (and them) get involved:
- Order and share free FTC materials. Find free online materials in a dozen languages at ftc.gov/languages. And, at ftc.gov/bulkorder, order free publications in multiple languages. Order by February 5 to ensure delivery in time for NCPW.
- Encourage reporting to the FTC. Through language lines (open 9am-5pm ET), the FTC now takes reports in all languages, as well as online in English and Spanish.
- Report in English: ReportFraud.ftc.gov or IdentityTheft.gov
- Report in Spanish: ReporteFraude.ftc.gov or RobodeIdentidad.gov
- Report scams in other languages: call (877) 382-4357 and press 3 to speak to an interpreter in your language
- Report identity theft in other languages: call (877) 438-4338 and press 3 to speak to an interpreter in your language
- Attend a free FTC webinar: National Consumer Protection Week: Outreach and Program Ideas.
- Share FTC resources for every community. Find consumer protection basics for college students, a dedicated website for the military community, a campaign for older adults, and more. Remember to order these free materials at ftc.gov/bulkorder by February 5.
And stay tuned next month for more on the virtual events planned for NCPW. See you then.
Jensen, the manufacturer of Xalerlto held a scam with Wegmans. For years I was obtaining a discount on my prescription from them, it was $10 when before they were charging me over $100 for a three month supply. This year, I received an email to renew. But, I did not read the fine print. It was to get another 3 month supply before the new year started, which I did not need. But, I fell for it and signed up. Wegman's charged me $240 for the 3 month supply and would not take it back because they had shipped it. I did not know I would get charged $240 for something I normally had been paying $10 until it was shipped and I got the notice. To me this is a disceptive partice preying on the elderly.
In reply to Jensen, the manufacturer of… by Jensen discept…
Thats awfull! have you considered suing them after your called FTC?
Nothing comes of it. Nothing. No money is ever recovered. No calls back to you when you fill out the form to report a scam.
In reply to Nothing comes of it. Nothing… by Bruce Rioux
The FTC gets refunds to people who lost money. There is a list of Active Refund Programs at www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds with contact information about each program.