Have I mentioned lately how much I DESPISE ALL SCAMMERS!

No, I will not keep quiet about that fact.

According to the Federal Trade Commission the numbers are in. They do not reflect well. Ten billion dollars. Nationwide, that is the staggering amount of money victims lost to scammers in 2023. Read the facts and weep!

There were 2.6 million reports of scams forwarded to the FTC in 2023. Government imposter scams led the way. These were followed in order by:

-online shopping scams
-prize winning scams
-sweepstakes scams
-lottery scams
-investment scams
-business/job opportunity scams


Get the picture yet?

With a whopping 4.6 billion dollars lost, investment scams scorched victims more than any other form. Wouldn't you just love to whop scammers upside their heads? At 2.7 billion dollars, government imposter scams came in second in the most money lost category.

Statistically-speaking, in 2023 there were 1 in 5 people who lost money to government imposter scammers. Were you one of them? No need to answer said question. If you did, just ponder the not-so-awesome news you were not alone.

The median amount of money lost in 2023 to government imposter scams ranged from:

-500 dollars for victims in the age range of 20-29
-803 dollars for senior citizens (the highest median amount of money lost. Sadly, isn't this sort of statistic true for those ages 70-79 almost all the time?)

Delaware, the smallest state in the country, led the way in the most government imposter complaints to the FTC about those ever popular Do Not Call violations by robocallers. And, some people with less than stellar IQ's actually believe Artificial Intelligence has any positive benefits associated with the nonsense? (However, I will allow that sentiment to be fodder for future articles.)

Other forms of complaints about these scam calls nationally included:

-medical scams
-prescription scams
-debt reduction scams
-energy scams
-solar scams
-utilities scams
-warranty and protection scams

According to the Social Security Administration, 228,282 government employee imposter scam calls were reported in 2023. These involved morons making calls to potential victims and claiming to be from:

-Social Security Administration
-US Department of Health and Human Services
-Medicare
-US Customs
-Border Patrol
-US Postal Service
-FTC

These scams were executed by:

-phone calls
-emails
-texts
-postal mail
-social media

Here is a Tip: Ensure an email address is legitimate to avoid possibly falling victim to a phishing scam. In clearer words, do not click on any email address you are not familiar with. You may well regret doing so.

Here are some ways to avoid being scammed by government imposter scams: Always report government imposter scams to reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/.

-never pay with gift cards or wire transfers
-government agencies never call people out of the blue with threats or promises of money
-legitimate government agencies ALWAYS conduct business through the US mail
-check with the real government agency if you have questions about correspondence no matter what form that correspondence is received in
-do not trust Caller ID. It is simple for scammers to make phone numbers look authentic and/or local.

To better avoid being a victim of a scammer:

-be skeptical
-trust your instincts
-never believe an offer that sounds too good to be true. 99.99% (or more of the time) they are.

Consider these warning signs of scammers:

-threats of being arrested, harmed or having benefits canceled. (BS)
-asking for payment in gift cards, wire transfers or crytocurrencies (#1 way scammers demand payment)
-high pressure to make an immediate decision
-unknown phone number
-unknown email address
-unsolicited sales calls
-awards of free vacations
-never date anyone online, that includes falling in love with some AI app. (Seems there are now several of them to select from.)
-claims you won a lottery, or anything else, you did not enter or do not remember entering.

Have I mentioned lately how much I DESPISE ALL SCAMMERS!