Are you at risk for fraud?  What are some of the more common frauds and how much could it cost you?

• In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) collected more than 1.4 million fraud reports, and Americans said they lost money to the fraud in 25 percent of those reports. Americans reported losing $1.48 billion to fraud – an increase of 38 percent over 2017.
• The top reports in 2018 were: imposter scams, debt collection, and identity theft.
• Younger people reported losing money to fraud more often than older people. Of those people who reported fraud and their age, 43 percent of people in their 20s reported a loss to that fraud, while only 15 percent of people in their 70s did.
• When people in their 70s lost money, the amount tended to be higher: their median loss was $751, compared to $400 for people in their 20s.
• Scammers like to get money by wire transfer – for a total of $423 million in 2018. That was the most of any payment method reported, but there was a surge of payments with gift and reload cards – a 95 percent increase in dollars paid to scammers last year.
• Tax-related identity theft was down last year (by 38 percent), but credit card fraud on new accounts was up 24 percent. In fact, misusing someone’s information to open a new credit card account was reported more often than other forms of identity theft in 2018.
• The top 3 states for fraud and other reports (per 100,000 population) are Florida, Georgia and Nevada. The top 3 states for identity theft reports (also per 100,000) are Georgia, Nevada and California.

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Teaching Suggestions

• Ask students if they, their relatives or friends have ever been victims of fraud. If so, what was the outcome?
• Ask students to prepare a list of local, state, and federal agencies where fraud can be reported.

Discussion Questions

1. Is it possible that the reason more young people reported fraud is because older persons are less likely to report?
2. Are older people not reporting fraud because they are not tech savvy, or embarrassed by their inability to know they were scammed?