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With more powerful and frequent natural disasters — even affecting areas where they weren’t typical — you might have something like “update or make my emergency plan” on your to do list. The FTC has information and tools to help you avoid fraud as you prepare and recover from an emergency. And this National Preparedness Month we’re partnering with FEMA to bring you free webinars in English and Spanish with step-by-step guidance to get ready.

To start making an emergency and recovery plan that includes how to detect disaster-related scams: 

  • Find information to help you prepare before an emergency. Start at ftc.gov/WeatherEmergencies or ftc.gov/EmergenciasClimaticas in Spanish. As all FTC’s free resources, the site is mobile-friendly, so you have access to the information anytime and wherever you need it.
  • Attend a free FTC/FEMA webinar. The sooner you make an emergency plan, and the more you know about disaster scams will help you spot and avoid scams as you recover.
    • Register to join Weather Emergencies & Fraud Prevention: Preparing, Managing & Recovering on September 17, 2024 at 2pm EST.
    • Register to join (in Spanish) Emergencias Meteorológicas y Prevención del Fraude: Preparación, Manejo y Recuperación on September 18, 2024 at 2pm EST.
  • Order and share free FTC materials. Picking Up the Pieces After a Disaster is a customizable handout to help you avoid common post-disaster scams, protect your personal information, and get back on track financially. Download a digital copy available in multiple languages to print and distribute in your community. And order free print publications at ftc.gov/bulkorder.

Suspect a disaster-related scam? Every report helps us build cases, work to stop scammers, and alert others about the current trends. Even if you didn’t lose money, tell the FTC and encourage others to report in their preferred language.

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Learn how to spot and avoid weather-related scams before disaster strikes. ftc.gov/WeatherEmergencies
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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.

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