Fraud rates are on the rise. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that fraud losses rose by 70% between 2020 and 2021 and an additional 30% in 2022, reaching an incredible $8.8 billion. Newly released Federal Trade Commission data show that consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, marking the first time that fraud losses have reached that benchmark. This marks a 14% increase over reported losses in 2022. That is a staggering amount!
Financial scams were among the most common crimes affecting U.S. adults in 2023, with 15% saying at least one member of their household had fallen prey to financial scams, including 8% reporting that it had happened to themselves personally, translating into roughly 21 million U.S. adults.
Adults with no college education are about twice as likely as college graduates to have personally been victimized by a scam in the past year. Those in households earning less than $50,000 per year (12%) are almost twice as likely as middle-income (7%) and upper-income adults (6%) to report having been scammed. Those statistics are sobering.
So, how do you protect yourself from being a victim of fraud? Join us at the library on Tuesday, May 7th at 6:00 p.m. EST when 1st Source Bank comes and discusses ways to protect yourself and/or your business from fraud.