Telemarketing Not Popular with Scam Artists: FTC

The Federal Trade Commission Monday released a comprehensive study on fraud in the United States which showed weight-loss scams were the most common type while telephone fraud was the least common fraud method.

Based primarily on a survey of American consumers, the FTC study covered fraud for the entire year of 2004. The FTC found that in that year some 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of fraud. Of that total, an estimated 4.8 million consumers were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products, more than any of the other frauds covered by the survey.

Not only did the FTC survey cover types of scams, it also reported the medium used to reach consumers. Print advertising – direct mail, including catalogs, newspaper and magazine advertising, and posters and flyers – was used to pitch fraudulent offers in 27 percent of reported incidents. The Internet, including Web sites, auction sites, and e-mail, was used to make 22 percent of the fraudulent pitches. Television or radio accounted for 21 percent of the pitches, and telemarketing accounted for nine percent.

As for the specific types of fraud people fell for in 2004, after weigh-loss scams, foreign lottery scams and unauthorized billing scams related to buyers’ clubs were next with 3.2 million victims each. Other types of popular scams were prize promotions, work-from-home schemes, credit card insurance, and credit repair scams.

The FTC also reported that the survey found that younger consumers, those who did not complete college, and those with high levels of debt were more likely to be victims of fraud.