Complaints of Imposter Scams Exceed ID Theft, Says FTC
Imposter scams, mainly due to government impersonators, eclipsed identity theft as the second-most common complaint lodged with the FTC last year, said the agency's annual summary of consumer complaints released Friday. The FTC said debt collection -- at 28 percent…
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of more than 3.1 million complaints in 2016 -- remained atop the list. The commission said imposter scams totaled more than 406,000 complaints, or 13 percent of all grievances. There were more than 399,000 ID theft complaints -- including employment- or tax-related, credit card, phone or utilities and bank frauds -- which were about 13 percent of all complaints, down from 16 percent in 2015. About 10 percent of complaints, or 292,000, were about phone and mobile services for advertising about mobile plans, unsolicited text message and problems with applications or downloads.