Did you recently get an official letter from the Federal Trade Commission?
Be careful. Scammers have been faking official-looking FTC letterhead to write frightening messages to people, threatening them.
A Pennsylvania man received a letter saying his online and financial activities put him under suspicion of money laundering and terrorism. And, all his activities would “be under review.”
The next part of the scam would probably have involved “urgent” phone calls telling him to send money right away, said Monica Vaca, associate director for Consumer Response and Operations at the FTC.
Vaca offers these suggestions on how to protect yourself against government imposters:
- The FTC will never send a letter like the man from Pennsylvania received, and will never threaten you.
- The FTC does write back to people who write to them, and sometimes sends letters about a refund from a case – but, the agency will never ask you to pay anything or give personal information to collect your funds. Find more about FTC refunds at ftc.gov/redress.
- No government agency will demand that you pay by gift card, wiring money, or bitcoin. Anyone who does that is a scammer.
- You can find out more about imposter scams at ftc.gov/imposters.
If you get a letter from the FTC, the agency wants to know about it. Before you do anything, call the FTC’s Consumer Response Center at 877-FTC-HELP or 877-382-4357.
In addition, you can sign up to get the FTC’s consumer alerts to make sure you know about the latest scams.
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