The Impact of Fraud Scams: Protecting Your Personal Information

What are they?

Scams are dishonest schemes whereby good people are swindled by bad actors who seek to perform fraud. These bad actors target innocent victims via text, phone, online, and sometimes in person.

Tricky business

Scammers use various tricks to gain their victims’ trust to take advantage of them, performing dishonest and deceptive acts.

Money-money

Victims may be financially targeted. Often, the goal is to get innocent people to part with their money, which results in victims’ loss of funds. Anyone who falls prey to a scammer, particularly those who lose money, should contact the police straightaway.

Seeking to steal your info.

Scammers may seek access to personal information for identity theft purposes. Be on guard and do not divulge personal data related to banking, passwords, social security, and other sensitive material. If you are unsure, do not divulge any information. Rather, immediately ask a trusted financial advisor or accountant for their advice.

Gallup on scams

2023 marks the first year that Gallup, an American analytics & advisory company, included scamming in its annual measure of Americans’ victimization from crime statistics. They discovered that scams are widespread and impact many people. This signals that folks should keep their guards up and be aware of scammers and the types of scams currently on the rise.

Scams are unfortunately common

Per Gallup - scams are one of the four most prevalent crimes affecting American households, on par with the percentage of people who report having a property vandalized. As a result, scams are deemed a “common” occurrence.

More stats were uncovered by Gallup. They include some of the following:

• In 2023, 15% in the U.S. say they or a household member was a scam victim in the past year alone.
• Scams cause anxiety. In fact, they are America’s second-highest crime worry. 57% say they frequently or occasionally worry about it happening to them. This percentage falls behind concerns over identity theft, which came in at 72%.
• At 22%, young adults report the highest overall rate of household victimization. Whereas 13% of people 65 and older report experiencing a scam in their household.
• Less educated and lower-income adults most frequently fall prey to scams.

Helpful things to know about scams:

• The FTC shares that nationwide fraud losses topped $10 Billion in 2023 – a benchmark number.
• Investment scams lead reported losses at more than $4.6 billion, a 21% increase from 2022.
• The second highest reported scam involves imposter scams, with losses of nearly $2.7 billion reported.
• In 2023, consumers also express having lost more money to bank transfers and cryptocurrency than all other methods combined.
• Consumers describe increases in business and government impersonators.
• Consumers report being victims of email scams, phone scams, and text message scams, with email scams displacing text messages from first place, and phone scams coming in second in 2023.

Scamming is a crime

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an agency of the United States federal government, takes scams seriously. Not only does the commission monitor trends, but they also seek to crack down on investment scams, illegal telemarketing, impersonator fraud, and other emerging forms of deception. They continually seek to provide fraud information to consumers, so that folks may spot signs of scams and avoid and report cases. To report fraud and help protect others in the community, visit reportfraud.ftc.gov To learn quick ways to spot some common scams, click here. This article is purely informational and is not intended as a substitute for professional advice.