WASHINGTON–Credit unions will want to urge members to keep up the vigilance when it comes to financial scams, as new data indicate fraudsters have bilked Americans out of $545 million in COVID-related fraud since the beginning of 2020.
The theft has taken place across a range of schemes from online shopping to travel, according to the FTC.
The FTC reported it received almost 589,000 consumer complaints associated with the pandemic from Jan. 1, 2020 to Aug. 30, 2021. Roughly 61% of the reports concerned fraud; the median loss was $380.
Price-gouging was the most commonly reported pandemic-related issue in 2020, according to state and local consumer agencies polled for a recent Consumer Federation of America report. Consumers complained of being charged exorbitant prices for sought-after products such as hand sanitizer, toilet paper and masks, the CFA said.
Agencies also received COVID-associated complaints in a wide range of other categories, such as evictions, canceled events and travel, schools and childcare, the report said.