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Consumer protection groups say people are losing more money to scams

A stack of coins with blocks and the word SCAM spelled out.
Giovswatika
/
Shutterstock
The amount of dollars being reported lost to scams is increasing.

Last year the Federal Trade Commission released data showing that consumers reported losing more than $10 billion dollars to fraud in 2023.

This marks a 14% increase over reported losses in 2022, and those numbers are projected to increase again for the year 2024.

Those numbers also only represent what's been reported by consumers. Experts say that the actual dollar amount is much larger, and the number of people being targeted is much higher.

Wednesday on the “Sound of Ideas” we’ll discuss the evolving scam landscape and how these scammers are getting more creative and intricate with how they’re getting money out of people.

Those include the growing number of imposter situations, where scammers are pretending to be a company like Amazon or UPS, or a government organization like the FBI.

Sheryl Harris from the Cuyahoga County Department of Consumer Affairs and Jon Miller Steiger from the Federal Trade Commission will be on the program to offer advice on how people can protect themselves from these scams, and what warning signs to watch out for.

People can also report and learn about scams through Cuyahoga County's site.
Scam Squad

Or the FTC's...
https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
The Scam Squad line is 216-443-7226

Information about SNAP card fraud or scams...
Cuyahoga County Information Page

Drew Maziasz is a coordinating producer for the "Sound of Ideas" and also serves as the show’s technical producer.