Warning about websites impersonating the FTC in the United States: How to avoid a scam

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report on Thursday outlining its actions against identity theft scams, revealing that 19 websites impersonated the agency and were removed from the internet following notifications sent to domain registrars.

The agency reported that it has carried out 14 enforcement actions that have resulted in over 80 million dollars in compensation for consumers to date. 

Among the deleted domains are addresses designed to confuse unsuspecting users: fttc.us, FTC-Support.org, ftcfederal.org, FTC-Complaints.org, FTC-help.com, federaltradecommissionapp.com, and reportfraudftcgov.netlify.app, among others. Some used unusual extensions such as .gold, .online, or .co to mimic the appearance of an official site.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Office of Consumer Protection, warned that these scams have been the most reported category of fraud in the country for years.

"Impersonation scams have been the most reported category of fraud for several years, resulting in billions of dollars in losses," he stated. "If you pretend to be, or be affiliated with, an entity to deceive consumers, you can expect to hear from us."

In 2025, consumers reported losses of 3.5 billion dollars due to this type of fraud. Seniors are the most vulnerable group. Individuals aged 60 and over lost approximately 3 billion dollars that year, five times more than the 600 million reported in 2020.

In Florida, only in 2024, there were 1,579 cases of impersonation of federal agents resulting in losses exceeding 12 million dollars.

A particularly deceptive scheme, documented in June 2026, involves scammers contacting their victims via text message or WhatsApp, posing as employees or "agents" of the FTC. They send a photo of a fake ID to "verify" their identity and then request money or financial information under the pretext of helping them recover losses from a previous scam.

Violations of the Impersonation Rule can incur civil penalties of up to $53,088 for each violation in the United States.

How to avoid these frauds

To identify this type of fraud, the FTC establishes three clear signs:

1. a real employee of the agency will never contact you por mensaje de texto ni por aplicaciones de mensajería
2. will never send a photo of their identification to "verify" their identity
3. It will never ask for money or financial information in exchange for helping to recover losses.

In broader terms, the FTC reminds that the agency "never demands payments, does not make threats, does not ask for money transfers, nor promises prizes". Any contact that includes these requests is a clear sign of fraud.

If you have any doubts about the authenticity of a contact, the FTC recommends going directly to ftc.gov by typing the address into your browser, without using links received in unexpected messages, and reporting potential fraud at reportfraud.ftc.gov.