Scams Hit 11% of U.S. Yearly, Survey Finds

Advance-Fee Loan Scams, Buyers Clubs Top the List

August 5, 2004
Nearly 25 million adults -- more than 11 percent of the population -- are victims of fraud in a typical year.

The newly released study by the Federal Trade Commission also shows that 75 percent of fraud related to credit, including credit-repair scams often targeted at those carrying high debt loads or having bad credit.

In its survey of 2,500 randomly chosen consumers, the FTC found the most frequently reported type of consumer fraud was advance-fee loan scams, in which consumers pay a fee for a "guaranteed" loan or credit card. Four and a half million consumers, or 2.1 percent of the U.S. adult population, paid advance fees but did not receive the promised loan or card. In fact, some consumers reported that more than once during the last year they paid fees to get loans or credit cards they did not get.

Buyers' club memberships or bills for unordered publications was the second most commonly reported fraud category in the survey. Some four million consumers - nearly 2 percent of the adult population -- were billed for memberships they did not authorize or publications they did not order.

The survey also found that certain racial and ethnic minorities were much more likely to be victims of fraud then non-Hispanic whites. American Indians and Alaska Natives were most likely to be victims: nearly 34 percent had experienced one or more frauds Seventeen percent of black Americans were victims; over 14 percent of Hispanics were victims; and over 6 percent of Non-Hispanic whites were victims.

Consumers between the ages of 25 and 44 are most likely to be fraud victims. Eleven percent of them were victims, compared with 8.7 percent in the 45 to 54 year bracket, 6.1 percent of consumers aged 55 to 64, and only 4.7 of consumers 65 years and older.

Women and younger consumers are more likely to complain if they have been victims of fraud, the survey found. An estimated 74.5 percent of female victims complained. For males, the complaint rate was 10 percentage points lower. Similarly, almost 75 percent of consumers under the age of 35 complained, compared to only 55.4 percent of consumers between 55 and 64.

Top 10

The top 10 frauds listed in the report were:

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