Impostor scams—in which scammers pose as representatives from the government or a well-known business, romantic interests or family members—were the number one type of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel in 2019, the agency said today. This type of fraud cost consumers more than $667 million, and consumers who lost money to this type of scam most frequently reported paying scammers with a gift card.
Phone calls were the number one way consumers reported interacting with scammers. Among those who lost money to phone scams, the median loss was $1,000.