For the first time, info about the FTC’s refund program will be available online, including state-by-state and case-by-case breakdowns of the amount refunded to consumers

Data unveils number of fraud reports in 2019. Source:?shutterstock.com

The data shows that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received almost 1.7 million fraud reports during the last year. FTC also unveils that its lawsuits returned $232 million to consumers last year.

A key part of the FTC’s mission is to return money to consumers harmed by illegal business practices. Over the last four years, they have cashed more than $1 billion in FTC refund checks.

As to the most common types of fraud reported to the FTC in 2019, those were imposter scams. Government imposter scams were the most frequently reported, being up more than 50% since 2018. Among all reports received, the top categories were identity theft, imposter scams, mobile services, online shopping, and credit bureaus.

Consumers, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies can send their reports directly to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network. In 2019, the network received 3.2 million reports, including nearly 1.7 million fraud reports.

Consumers reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud in 2019, with nearly $667 million lost to imposter scams alone.

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