One sourced, shareable fact about how scams work, every day.https://howscamswork.com/enhttps://howscamswork.com/facts/gold-coins-marked-up-92-to-130-percent/https://howscamswork.com/facts/gold-coins-marked-up-92-to-130-percent/A dealer quoted retirement-account customers a 1% to 5% markup on bullion, then sold them coins marked up 92% to 130% over cost, according to a 2024 federal consent order. Salespeople also claimed a direct relationship with the Royal Canadian Mint and called the coins limited quantity, though the Mint placed no cap. The company and two salespeople agreed to pay a combined $56.3 million and a permanent ban.Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-online-shopping-small-losses/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-online-shopping-small-losses/Online shopping and negative reviews drew 383,441 reports to the FTC in 2024, with a median loss of $130, against $2,250 for business and job opportunity scams. Volume and harm point in different directions: the most common scams are often the cheapest per person.Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-crypto-bank-transfer-vs-gift-cards/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-crypto-bank-transfer-vs-gift-cards/Cryptocurrency scam payments cost people $1.4 billion in 2024 in FTC reports, more than gift cards, wire transfers and cash put together. Gift cards accounted for $212 million, wire transfers for $287 million and cash for $308 million.Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-median-investment-loss/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-median-investment-loss/In 2024 the median loss reported to the FTC for investment-related fraud was $9,196, against $497 for fraud overall. Investment scams are a small share of reports and a very large share of the money, because each victim loses so much more.Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-bank-transfer-costliest-payment/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-bank-transfer-costliest-payment/Bank transfers were the costliest way to pay a scammer in 2024: $2.1 billion reported to the FTC from 47,336 reports, against $275 million on credit cards from 108,881. Credit cards are used far more often and lose far less, because a card payment can be disputed and a bank transfer usually cannot.Sun, 18 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-80-plus-median-loss/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ftc-2024-80-plus-median-loss/People aged 80 and over reported a median fraud loss of $1,650 to the FTC in 2024, against $189 for those aged 19 and under. Older people report fewer scams overall and lose more each time. The median rises with every age band in the data.Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/fcc-carrier-order-cut-robocalls-99-percent/https://howscamswork.com/facts/fcc-carrier-order-cut-robocalls-99-percent/After the FCC ordered US voice providers in July 2022 to stop carrying one operation's auto warranty robocalls, such calls dropped 99% between June and December 2022, according to RoboKiller. The FCC aimed at the carriers rather than the callers or the victims: the operators were in Panama and Hungary, but the calls had to cross US networks. A 99% drop in one campaign's traffic is not the end of such calls.Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/fictitious-law-firms-target-crypto-victims/https://howscamswork.com/facts/fictitious-law-firms-target-crypto-victims/Between February 2023 and February 2024, crypto-scam victims who were then approached by fictitious law firms offering to recover their money reported losses of over $9.9 million to the FBI. Operators claim to work with the FBI, but the FBI says no law firm is an official partner of a US government agency, and law enforcement does not charge victims a fee. They often quote the exact amounts and dates of earlier transfers. Figures are unverified allegations.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/fbi-warned-9000-victims-saved-562-million/https://howscamswork.com/facts/fbi-warned-9000-victims-saved-562-million/In April 2026 the FBI said its Operation Level Up had contacted almost 9,000 people mid-scam and saved them an estimated $562 million, as prosecutors charged alleged scam-centre managers. The same announcement cited at least 276 arrests across several countries. The savings figure comes from telling people in the middle of a scam, not from prosecutions. The defendants are charged, not convicted.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/fake-trademark-notice-deadline-three-years-early/https://howscamswork.com/facts/fake-trademark-notice-deadline-three-years-early/A man posing as a 'Patent and Trademark Bureau' sent fake renewal notices to more than 2,900 trademark owners, one with a deadline of September 15, 2021 for a registration not due until 2024. The notices were built from public trademark records, so no hacking was needed. He was sentenced in September 2021 to more than four years in prison, with more than $4.5 million in restitution ordered.Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/crypto-recovery-service-200-no-recovery/https://howscamswork.com/facts/crypto-recovery-service-200-no-recovery/Manhattan prosecutors say a crypto 'recovery service' used hired actors, fake news articles and invented tracing reports, and that more than 200 of its customers reported recovering nothing. Prosecutors allege customers paid an initial consultation fee in Ethereum, were falsely promised recovery, and were then asked for further payments while being sent fraudulent documentation. The defendants are presumed innocent.Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/credit-repair-giants-2-7-billion-judgment/https://howscamswork.com/facts/credit-repair-giants-2-7-billion-judgment/A 2023 CFPB settlement with the two largest US credit repair brands imposed a $2.7 billion redress judgment over illegal advance fees charged to roughly 4 million telemarketed customers. A federal court ruled in March 2023 that the companies collected fees before completing promised services. They had filed for Chapter 11, and the settlement also carried a ten-year ban on telemarketing credit repair services.Sun, 11 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/click-profit-95-percent-stores-shut-down/https://howscamswork.com/facts/click-profit-95-percent-stores-shut-down/The FTC said roughly 95% of the Amazon stores Click Profit sold as guaranteed passive income were blocked, suspended or terminated, and over 20% earned zero revenue. The FTC says the scheme cost consumers at least $14 million, and that customers who complained were threatened with lawsuits under an unlawful non-disparagement clause. A permanent ban followed on 25 August 2025.Sat, 10 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/charity-telefunders-kept-up-to-90-percent/https://howscamswork.com/facts/charity-telefunders-kept-up-to-90-percent/In a 2020 FTC case, as much as 90% of the money raised for sham veterans, police and breast cancer charities went to the telemarketers, and in some cases less than 2% went to charitable purposes. The FTC and four states permanently banned the defendants from all charity fundraising, including for political action committees. Hiring a paid fundraiser is legal; the abuse is a shell charity that mainly lends its name to one that keeps nearly everything.Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/check-fraud-reports-nearly-doubled-2022/https://howscamswork.com/facts/check-fraud-reports-nearly-doubled-2022/FinCEN recorded over 350,000 check-fraud suspicious activity reports in 2021 and over 680,000 in 2022, nearly double, and in February 2023 called it a nationwide surge. FinCEN's alert notes that mail theft-related check fraud was previously mostly confined to postal employees with facility access and is now widespread street-level theft. The Postal Inspection Service says it recovers more than $1 billion in counterfeit checks and money orders every year.Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/cjng-timeshare-fraud-350-million/https://howscamswork.com/facts/cjng-timeshare-fraud-350-million/Prosecutors say a cartel ran call centres charging Americans fees to sell timeshares they owned; about 6,000 US victims reported approximately $350 million lost to timeshare fraud from 2019 to 2024. The Treasury says the call centres obtain victim information from complicit insiders at timeshare resorts. The charges, including material support to a foreign terrorist organization, are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent.Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/cancer-charity-194809-to-patients/https://howscamswork.com/facts/cancer-charity-194809-to-patients/The FTC and ten states allege a cancer charity collected more than $18 million from donors between 2017 and 2022 and spent $194,809 on support for patients, about one cent in every dollar. The complaint also alleges its operator took $775,139 in salary, nearly four times what the fund gave to patients, and that about 85% of donations went to for-profit fundraisers. The charity was real; the allegation is that little reached patients.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/celebrity-endorsers-first-ftc-settlements/https://howscamswork.com/facts/celebrity-endorsers-first-ftc-settlements/The FTC's settlements of $1.25 million and $450,000 with two celebrity endorsers of real estate training programs were its first monetary settlements with celebrity endorsers. The court had earlier found many of the company's claims false or misleading. The endorsers agreed to pay without admitting or denying the FTC's allegations.Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/79-year-old-money-mule-probation/https://howscamswork.com/facts/79-year-old-money-mule-probation/A 79-year-old Missouri woman who deposited more than $2 million from 28 lottery scam victims into her own accounts was sentenced to probation, not prison, and ordered to repay $1.97 million. One bank closed her account after the first deposit, but she kept going at other institutions, supplying debit cards to co-conspirators in Jamaica who withdrew the money. An order for $1.97 million does not mean victims will recover that amount.Sun, 04 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/arizona-sober-living-2-8-billion-billing/https://howscamswork.com/facts/arizona-sober-living-2-8-billion-billing/By May 2025 Arizona had indicted more than 100 people over sober-living Medicaid fraud that state officials estimate at roughly $2.8 billion in billing, with about $140 million recovered. Prosecutors say operators recruited people in recovery with free housing, paid kickbacks for referrals, then billed Medicaid for counseling that was shortened, duplicated or never held. Native American patients were targeted because one programme paid more.Sat, 03 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/arizona-60-counselors-500000-veterans/https://howscamswork.com/facts/arizona-60-counselors-500000-veterans/Arizona's veterans department employs roughly 60 benefits counselors for approximately 500,000 veterans, a gap the Attorney General cited in a 2026 settlement with a VA claims company. The $1.95 million settlement resolved allegations the company charged for VA claims help it was not accredited to provide. The free, accredited option exists, but a paid company with a search ad is often easier to find.Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/american-tax-relief-first-ftc-case/https://howscamswork.com/facts/american-tax-relief-first-ftc-case/The FTC's first tax relief case ended in 2013 with a $103.3 million judgment, suspended once the defendants surrendered more than $15 million in cash and assets, including a 2005 Ferrari. The FTC alleged the company advertised on TV, radio and the internet, routed 'free consultation' calls to commission-based sales reps and charged upfront fees of $3,200 to $25,000. The order permanently banned the operators from telemarketing and selling debt relief.Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/ai-fake-medicare-consent-recordings/https://howscamswork.com/facts/ai-fake-medicare-consent-recordings/Prosecutors say defendants in a $703 million Medicare scheme charged in Illinois in 2025 used artificial intelligence to create fake recordings of beneficiaries consenting to receive products. A recorded consent call is an anti-fraud control; the allegation is that the control itself was manufactured. The case was part of a June 2025 takedown that charged 324 defendants. Everything described is an allegation.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://howscamswork.com/facts/auto-warranty-robocalls-5-billion-in-three-months/https://howscamswork.com/facts/auto-warranty-robocalls-5-billion-in-three-months/The FCC found one auto warranty robocall operation apparently placed approximately 5,187,677,000 calls in three months of 2021, using 1,051,461 unique caller ID numbers. That is enough to have contacted every person in the United States 15 times in the quarter. The FCC proposed a $299,997,000 penalty, its largest ever; a Notice of Apparent Liability contains only allegations.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:00:00 GMT