Blog

It’s hard not to glance at your phone when you hear the ding of an incoming text. Scammers bet on it. And reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network suggest their odds of a big payout have improved: reported losses to text scams have skyrocketed even as the number of reports declined. In 2024, people reported $470 million in losses to these scams, more than five times the 2020 number. And since the vast majority of frauds are never reported, this number likely reflects only a fraction of the actual harm.

Fans want to know that when tickets to their favorite artist’s summer tour drop, they have a chance of getting good seats at face value. They don’t want to have to compete with people cheating the system by buying more tickets than allowed by the ticket seller. And they really don’t want to have to buy their tickets at seriously inflated prices from ticket resellers who cheated the system. That’s the problem Congress was trying to address with...

They say April showers bring May flowers. April also marks the one-year anniversary of the FTC’s Impersonation Rule, which gives the FTC more tools to fight impersonation scams that cost nearly $3 billion in reported losses during 2024. Impersonation scams hurt people and legitimate businesses. Here’s what the FTC is doing to fight these scams. Impersonators pretend to be someone they’re not to try to steal your money or personal information...

Maybe you’re opening a small business or hiring a household employee? Or you’re starting a nonprofit or administering an estate? If you’re creating or reorganizing a legal entity, chances are you’re going to need an Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-assigned Employer Identification Number (EIN) to file your taxes and confirm your organization’s identity. The IRS’s website has a free and easy tool to get one, but scammers don’t tell you that. Today...

Blizzards. Hurricanes. Floods. Wildfires. No matter the season, an extreme weather event or natural disaster could be right around the corner. And when – not if – an emergency happens, you may need to make critical decisions for your business, fast. Scammers know it's the perfect time to strike. Is your business ready? If you don’t already have a weather emergency plan, today’s the day to make one. The FTC has websites in English and Spanish to...

When businesses know the rules of the road, they can confidently invest in new ventures, technologies, and products. Under my leadership, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) is committed to providing legal clarity to legitimate businesses that wish to deal honestly with their customers and comply with the law. By offering clear and consistent rules of the road, legitimate businesses can comply with confidence. Businesses that choose not...

The FTC recently filed a case to stop what it describes as a fast-moving scam involving a group of companies offering business opportunities and a supposed credit repair service. Although the names and details changed as the alleged scam evolved, the FTC says the defendants’ business opportunities had at least one thing in common: misleading promises that people could earn a lot of money with relatively little effort. And when it came to the...

Each year, the Commission adjusts the minimum dollar jurisdictional thresholds that determine reportability under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act based on the change in gross national product in the prior year. The 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act created filing fee tiers with filing fees. The thresholds for these filing fees, as well as the fee amounts, are also adjusted annually along with the jurisdictional thresholds. The Commission recently...

The FTC has been hard at work over the past few years. Part of the agency's mission has been to build internal muscles to better anticipate how existing and emerging technologies can harm consumers and competition. This is why the FTC established the Office of Technology (OT), a first in the agency's 110-year history. OT's work has become an indelible part of the agency, an acknowledgment of how deeply technology is ingrained across the economy...

Any marketer will tell you: great storytelling sells. Whether your product is a sports drink, a service, or a videogame loot box, the more your ads draw people in, the more likely it is they’ll buy whatever you’re selling. But, especially when you're marketing to kids and teens, you need to think carefully about your design practices. Consider today’s proposed settlement, filed by the Department of Justice on the FTC’s behalf, where the FTC...