The FBI said Pennsylvania had more than 3,000 scam victims last year, with reported losses of more than $118 million.
The Federal Trade Commission said fraudsters use weather disasters, such as the recent hurricanes, to lure unsuspecting Pennsylvanians to shell out dollars to a fake charity. Con artists are also using technology to trick voters into donating to a bogus political cause or to spread false information.
Matt Schiltz, staff attorney for the Midwest regional office of the Federal Trade Commission in Chicago, said impostor scams are the most frequently reported type of fraud.
"Unfortunately, I've seen reports that people are using artificial intelligence to clone voices, or at least trying to, so the person calling may sound like a friend or a family member, or a famous person, a politician," Schiltz observed.
Older Americans reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud last year. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the actual loss could be as high as $62 billion, due to many cases going unreported.
Schiltz explained fraudsters create new, more persuasive scams by improvising on old ones. A recent scam is one in which a person posing as a bank employee contacts a potential victim and informs them they need to move their money into another account for protection against tampering or government seizure. Schiltz noted the agency is working on several different fronts to combat impostors.
"The FTC has a new impersonation rule that gives the agency stronger tools to combat the scams," Schiltz pointed out. "We actually brought our first case under the impersonation rule earlier this year."
Consumers are encouraged to visit FTC.gov/imposters to learn more about the different types of scams. Schiltz encouraged anyone with knowledge of a scam to contact the agency at ReportFraud.FTC.gov.
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