Study finds imposter scams are down, financial losses increase

While overall imposter scams are on the decline so far in 2020 compared to past years, the amount of money lost to scams increased significantly.

Atlas VPN released its analysis through data provided by the Federal Trade Commission, finding therewere a total of 168,818 scams during the first half of 2020, the lowest number of any of the prior five years. There were more than double the number of scams (355,866) during the same time frame in 2019.

However, the monetary losses have climbed in each year since 2015, including this year. An estimated $299.9 million has been lost to scams in 2020, compared to $261.1 million in 2019 and $239 million in 2018. Atlas VPN did not provide specifics on the scams, but suggested they are “becoming more sophisticated” than years past.

Scams were most common in California. There were 13,312 in total during the first half of 2020, which accounted for eight percent of all scams in the

U.S. Florida (10,489) and Texas (9,944) were second and third, respectively.

Similar to national trends, the number of scams in California dropped by 66 percent compared to the same period of time last year. Atlas VPN did not provide monetary losses on scams by state.

By definition, imposter scams typically involve someone contacting an individual posing as someone he or she is not. The purpose of these scams typically involves stealing money or gaining access to personal information.

In the instance a person claims to be representing a government agency or another company, Atlas VPN says it is important to independently verify the person really is who they claim to be. This can be done by calling the agency/company official phone number or email address. In all instances, people should not give out any personal information unless they are certain the person is legitimate, not a scammer.