The Federal Trade Commission has released information on their reports of scams throughout the year 2022 to see what scammers have been up to.
In 2022, the FTC reports that scammers were able to take $8.8 billion dollars from innocent people, an increase of $2.6 billion dollars from 2021. Even though the dollar amount was higher in 2022, the number of reports the FTC received in 2022 was lower than in 2021, by half a million.
One of the largest scams that took place were investment scams, with reported losses of $3.8 billion dollars. The second was impersonator scams, which were the most reported to the FTC, reported losses totaled $2.6 billion dollars.
Don’t think though this increase of monetary loss is due to an aging population, reports show young adults, ages 20-29, had reported losing more money than older adults (ages 70-79). However, when older adults did lose money, they lost more in total.
The FTC says if you believe you lost money to a scam, see what next steps you need to take by visiting the FTC website found HERE.
