Feds warn of rise in imposter scams

(InvestigateTV) — More than 170,000 reports of imposter scams have been reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) so far this year, a loss the FTC said totals more than $645 million.

Pennsylvania Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Smyth said he is trying to warn consumers of the high incident rate of scams.

“Just to give you the sense of the number – $137 billion – that’s the same amount of the budget of the Department of Homeland Security. Which employs 240,000 people,” Symth said of the monies lost to fraud.

Smyth said in an effort to combat that number, his office has set up a five-person team dedicated solely to handling scam reports.

“As soon as a scam report comes in, we immediately contact the consumer, get all the documents information about what happened and then we reach out to all the financial institutions involved to try to freeze the money if there is any money left and get it back for the consumer,” Smyth explained. “The other thing our office does is work with federal state and law enforcement partners to try to shut down emails, websites and phone numbers that have been used by the scammers. So, we’re both trying to help the consumers who’ve been harmed but also prevent others from being ripped off.”

Smyth encouraged people to immediately contact their attorney general’s office if they think they have been scammed.

He said most people don’t know their state attorney general’s office has a consumer protection division.

That’s why he said he’s spreading the word, with hopes that with more complaints the scam and fraud reports will decline.

“We think it’s important because right now the banks are not taking responsibility to prevent the scams. 75% of the scams that we see in Pennsylvania involve a wire transfer from a bank. And most of that money, as I said earlier, is never recovered once it’s sent to the scammer,” Smyth said. “The banks have the ability to recognize and prevent fraud. We see them do it in the credit card space extremely well. They’ve been doing it for 50 years. And, they haven’t stepped up to protect check fraud and wire fraud the way that they should.”

The federal government is pushing for accountability from banks as well. In April, the Senate Banking Committee chair sent letters to the nation’s top four banks requesting data on wire fraud as well as information about their policies and procedures for reimbursing victims.

Smyth hoped the letter leads to action.

“In talking with the consumers who experience the scams, it’s devastating. The way that they lose their life savings, some people maybe their life savings is $30,000. And to lose that is everything,” he shared. “Others are losing half a million dollars or $7 million. And in any case, however much money people have to go through that is just really horrible!!”

Smyth urged consumers who think they may have been scammed to report it to their state’s consumer protection divison and the FTC.

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