The Sentinel Team has put a bow on summer and looks forward to a vibrant autumn with a new project to obtain consumer reports from federal, state, and county courts. These reports largely involve government impostors and jury duty scams. We appreciate the cooperation that we are receiving from various clerks of court on this matter. Beyond that, we have also added more toll scam data sources, leading to a present tally of 44 toll scam data sources representing 34 states.
|
Beyond court and transportation data sources, we also added the following data contributors:
- King County Sheriff’s Department, Washington State;
- Lowe's Companies, Inc.;
- Miami-Dade County, Florida;
- Nextdoor Holdings, Inc.;
- and Takoma Park Police Department, Maryland.
These five new data sources are largely providing quality business and government impostor scams. At present, the Consumer Sentinel Network receives data from over 150 data sources per month.
|
|
Our latest Data Spotlight looks at business and government impersonation frauds that want consumers to turn over funds to keep them “safe.” The Spotlight shows the following findings:
- reports by older adults losing $10,000 or more quadrupled since 2020;
- those who lost $100,000 or more increased sevenfold;
- one-third of the money lost was sent in cryptocurrency;
- these frauds also begin as technical support scams;
- and last year, $690 million was reported lost to this type of scam.
|
We are pleased to hear of several success stories where law enforcement used Sentinel data to stop fraud.
- A Philadelphia man was sentenced to over five years in prison for stealing the personal information of multiple U.S. servicemembers and using it to inflict emotional distress and related offenses.
- The FTC used Sentinel data in its now-settled Match Group case, charging that the online dating service misled users about “guarantees,” made it difficult for consumers to cancel, and unfairly retaliated against consumers who initiated failed chargebacks. In the settlement, Match Group agreed to pay $14 million, permanently stop misrepresenting guarantees, cease locking consumers out of paid-for accounts, and simplify Match.com’s cancellation processes.
- The FTC also used Sentinel data in its LA Fitness case, claiming that the defendant allegedly made it excessively difficult for consumers to cancel their gym memberships. It claimed that the cancellation processes are complicated and not clearly disclosed.
- In the FTC’s Disney case, Sentinel data aided in reaching a settlement of a $10 million fine to settle the agency’s lawsuit alleging Disney allowed personal data to be collected on children under 13, violating federal law.
|
|
|
The Disney case (see above) involved minors. It’s possible to identify consumers by age by conducting a search, then clicking Consumer Age Range on the left-hand side (see Filter Results). Roughly half of all consumers provide age in a way that we can process it.
|
|
Want to learn more Sentinel tips like the one above? The next online Sentinel training session will be on Wednesday, September 10th, at 12:00 EST. The following one will be on Thursday, October 16th at 12:00 EST. Please contact sentinel@ftc.gov to register or find out about future monthly sessions.
Sentinel data is assisting the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general, with “Operation Robocall Roundup,” a multistate effort to crack down on robocalls across the country.
As part of the operation, the Task Force sent notice letters to 37 voice service providers for allegedly failing to comply with FCC robocall mitigation requirements and not adequately responding to government traceback requests. Copies of the letters were also sent to 99 downstream providers that accept call traffic from those companies to alert them to the Task Force’s concerns.
|
The FTC offers a wealth of consumer education, such as on avoiding task scams. In such scams, unsolicited messages offer easy online work, especially through social media or messaging apps. Learn more about spotting and avoiding scams at ftc.gov/scams.
|
|
|
|
