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April is Financial Literacy Month, and a great time to talk about consumer protection information that helps people avoid losing money to scammers. Federal Trade Commission data show people reported losing more than $10 billion to scams in 2023, marking the first time that fraud losses have reached that benchmark. It's now more important than ever to share information about spotting, avoiding and reporting scams. The free advice at ftc.gov/MoneyMatters will help you.

Whether you’re renting your first place to live, buying a car, applying for a job or mortgage, or looking for help dealing with debt, Money Matters has the tools we can all use to spot, avoid, and report scams as you venture on your way. 

The information at Money Matters is here when and where you need it, on your phone or computer, and includes articles, videos, graphics to share on social media, and PowerPoint presentations on topics like:

Share this video using the links in the player above or use the YouTube version.

Please share what you learn with family, friends, and members of your community. It’s easy to share the graphics and videos on social media. Or use the presentation slides to talk with groups you might be part of — say, at a neighborhood PTA, church group, or club meeting. Talking about a scam helps you avoid it, and it also helps others you care about avoid the scam. 

 

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.

Art Costa Sr
April 02, 2024

Do you handle SS problems?

Anthony D
April 04, 2024

Nice video!

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