FTC Warns About Scammers Impersonating Agency Staff

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers to be wary of scammers pretending to be staff members.

The FTC issued a press release and blog post on Tuesday (July 11) to alert consumers.

The blog post said that scammers have been using the names of real FTC employees to gain people’s trust and have been using tactics such as suggesting to consumers that they have won a contest and must pay to collect their prize or owe money to the agency. The FTC has warned people to continue to be vigilant and to report any scammer behavior immediately to reportfraud.ftc.gov.

The key facts mentioned in the blog post that consumers should remember are: “The FTC will never call you to demand money. The FTC will never threaten you with arrest. The FTC will never promise you a prize. Anyone who does is a scammer.”

If anyone has reported something to the FTC and provided an email address, they will receive an email with advice about how to recover and protect themselves, according to the blog post. Furthermore, an individual getting a refund or payment from an FTC case will receive it by check, prepaid debit card or PayPal.

“Scammers want to gain your trust,” the FTC said in the blog post. “That’s why they keep pretending to work for government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission. They might use the names of real FTC employees, but the stories they tell are a bunch of lies.”

Scammers are increasingly using synthetic fraud as artificial intelligence (AI) evolves. Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ government division, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in June that stolen information, such as photos, names, birthdays and home addresses, can be used to create fake video selfies for identity verification.

With this information, scammers can fraudulently claim government benefits, such as unemployment benefits, college loans and food stamps, potentially stealing up to $2 million per stolen ID, Talcove said.

In addition to the rise of synthetic fraud, there is also the concern of deepfakes, which are audio/visual forgeries created using AI. Several states have passed laws to regulate deepfakes, and Microsoft President Brad Smith has called for measures to protect against the alteration of legitimate content.