Military Consumers Suffer More Loses Financially From Fraud According To BBB Scam Tracker Report
Better Business Bureau Creates the “BBB Scam Tracker” For Businesses and Consumers To Report Both Successful and Attempted Acts of Fraud
Perhaps you have been getting emails, phone calls or texts either telling you to verify information or if you don’t your account will be suspended. Or maybe you have been asked by what appears to be a credible source that you need to be in contact with them in order to get your package delivered. Maybe you have been contacted by the “IRS” and “they” are informing you if you do not get in contact with them, you will be going to jail for non-payment. Or perhaps you receive a very official looking email with what appears to be the logo of a company you have used before, such as the Geek Squad or Amazon asking for you to update your financial information or risk having your account terminated.
Unfortunately, scams such as these are becoming all too common. So, who do you turn to if you think you are a victim or a potential victim of a scam? Your local Better Business Bureau is a good start. The Better Business Bureau is an organization that is a community-based resource that helps consumers identify businesses that are trustworthy as well as those that are not. At a time when trust has never been more important, they are empowering communities to fight fraud together. Every year they publish a report called the BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report. They evaluate scams using a formula based on three factors. “Exposure x Susceptibility (or likelihood of loss) x Monetary Loss”. This formula helps the BBB to understand which consumers are most vulnerable to scams and what impact various scams are having on consumers.
Melissa Lanning Trumpower is the executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust which produces the Scam Tracker Risk Report annually. She reports that they saw a resurgence of Employment Scams in 2022. “This is a high-touch scam in which perpetrators spend more time with their targets in the hope of stealing more money from each target.” The Bureau reports that the median dollar loss of $1,500 for employment scams is significantly higher than the overall median dollar loss of $171 for all scam types.
Other interesting findings in the report include:
- More people reported losing money when targeted by a website, social media, or email than other contact methods.
- Those who were targeted in person reported losing the largest amount of money ($715), followed by text message ($579) and phone ($550).
- Text message scams increased 39.6 percent, up from 12.7 percent in 2022.
- Scams perpetrated online were more likely to result in a monetary loss, compared with scams being targeted by phone or in person.
- Credit cards remained the most reported payment method with a monetary loss, followed by online payment systems.
- The payment methods with the highest median dollar loss were wire transfer ($2,700), check ($1,277), and cryptocurrency ($1,135).
- The riskiest scam type varied among age groups, with employment scams landing as the #1 riskiest for ages 18 to 34.
- Online purchase scams were again the #1 riskiest for ages 35 to 64. Home improvement scams were the #1 riskiest for ages 65+.
- Military consumers (active-duty military, spouses, and veterans) reported significantly higher median financial losses ($238) than non-military consumers ($163). Active-duty military reported losing significantly more money ($490) than military spouses ($248) and veterans ($200).
The Better Business Bureau has created the BBB Scam Tracker. (BBB.org/ScamTracker) It is an online platform that allows businesses and consumers to report both successful and attempted acts of fraud. According to the 2022 Scam Tracker report the top five impersonated organizations that were reported to the Scam Tracker in 2022 were:
- Amazon
- Geek Squad
- Publishers Clearing House
- U.S. Postal Service
- Norton
A list of the top 15 is provided in the report.
“Scammers will try to take advantage of trust relationships you’ve built with well-respected brands. Impersonating these popular companies makes it that much easier to con the unsuspecting consumer,” said Judy Dollison, President of BBB of Central Ohio.
We last posted a “Scam Alert” on December 24, 2022 on the Ohio Family Law Blog. Click local BBB (BBB of Central Ohio) if you are unsure of something that could possibly be a scam. Report suspected scams at www.bbb.org/scamtracker
Stay up to date by signing up for Scam Alerts.
RESOURCES
For more highlights from the 2022 BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report, visit BBBMarketplaceTrust.org/RiskReport.
Go to BBB.org/ScamTracker to report a scam, learn more about other risky scams on BBB.org/ScamTips and visit their news feed.
To learn more about the Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org.
© 2023, Ohio Family Law Blog. All rights reserved.
Joseph Balmer manages the Probate, Trust and Estate Administration department at Dayton, Ohio, law firm, Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues, and has been certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as a specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law since 2006.