Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – The FTC released data on February 23, showing they received 4,409 Alaska fraud reports last year.
Alaska consumers reported losing a total of $16,691,422 to fraud, with a median loss of $950.
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network is a database that receives reports directly from consumers, as well as federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members and non-profit organizations. Reports from across the country on consumer protection issues, including identity theft, fraud and other categories, are a key resource for FTC investigations stopping illegal activity and, where possible, providing refunds to consumers. consumers.
Across all types of reports, the FTC received a total of 6,986 reports from consumers in Alaska in 2022.
The top category of reports received from consumers in Alaska was Impostor Scams; followed by Identity Theft; Online purchases and negative reviews; Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries; and credit bureaus, information providers and report users.
Alaska isn’t the only one seeing an increase in fraud;
Nationwide, consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, up from $5.8 billion in 2021. Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams, more than $3.8 billion, than any other category in 2022. That more than double the amount reported lost in 2021.
The second-highest reported loss amount came from impostor scams, with losses of $2.6 billion reported, up from $2.3 billion in 2021.
The FTC received fraud reports from 2.4 million consumers last year, with imposter scams being the most common, followed by online shopping scams. prizes, raffles and lotteries; investment related reports; and business and job opportunities rounded out the top five fraud categories.
Sentinel received more than 5.1 million reports overall in 2022. Of these, more than 1.1 million were identity theft reports received through the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website.
The FTC uses the reports it receives through Sentinel as the starting point for many of its law enforcement investigations, and the agency also shares these reports with approximately 2,800 federal, state, local, and international law enforcement professionals. While the FTC does not intervene in individual complaints, Sentinel reports are a vital part of the agency’s law enforcement mission.
A full breakdown of the reports received in 2022 is now available on the FTC’s data analysis site here. The data dashboards there break down the reports into various categories, including by state and metro area.
