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Welcome to National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) 2020. Today kicks off the 23rd year of one of the FTC’s biggest annual events. Whether you’re new to NCPW or a longtime participant, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to celebrate the local, state and federal consumer protection work being done year-round across the country. 

At the FTC, we use every available resource to investigate fraud and shut down scams. But our most valuable resource is education – and that’s where you come in. 

Consumer agencies, law enforcement, and the media often talk about how to spot and avoid imposters, unwanted calls, and all types of fraud. But we know that people take these messages to heart when they come from a neighbor, friend, or family member. So, during NCPW and all year round, here are a few ways that you can make a real difference: 

Ready to do more? At FTC.gov/NCPW, you’ll find tools to promote NCPW, as well as links to partner websites, initiatives, and events. 

Finally, I would like to invite you to join us at some of our events this week, including:

Monday, March 2 – Friday, March 6

Follow USAGov (@usagov) on Instagram for quick, shareable consumer tips all week long.

Watch “The Impostors: Stealing Money, Damaging Lives,“ a two-part webinar hosted by AARP. You’ll learn about the most-reported imposter scams, how to recognize one, and what to do if you think you’ve encountered a scammer.

Thursday, March 5

11am EST: Participate in our “Slam the Scam” Twitter chat with @FTC, @USAGov, @SocialSecurity and @IRSnews on avoiding imposter scams. Use #SlamtheScamChat and #NCPW2020 to follow the conversation.

1pm EST: Join AARP’s Slam the Scam webinar and hear from the Federal Trade Commission and our colleagues from some commonly impersonated government agencies: Medicare, the Internal Revenue Service, the Census Bureau, and the Social Security Administration.

7pm EST: Join us for a Facebook Live with our colleagues from the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Office of the Inspector General. We’ll talk about how to spot and avoid SSA scams. Please join us LIVE and ask questions!

Thank you for taking part in NCPW, and for all you do to protect consumers throughout the year. We hope to see you next year.

Search Terms
consumer advocate
fraud
imposter
Topics
Shopping and Donating
Health
Jobs and Making Money
Unwanted Calls, Emails, and Texts

It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.

The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

Cheri Ts
March 02, 2020
I would like to be able to follow some of the programs but I am not on Facebook or Twitter. Too bad they all can't be seen as a seminar
brad97
March 02, 2020
Please set up a link that we can forward an email when we submit a complaint so that you can see the actual email we received in order for you to see firsthand what danger this email can do to unsuspecting consumers.
FTC Staff
March 03, 2020

In reply to by brad97

When you report a problem to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint, you can send a copy of the email you got.

The FTC complaint form includes a question that asks you to explain what happened. You can copy the email you got, and put the copy into that space. 

landmadonna
March 05, 2020
I was contacted on Facebook to friend someone I did he tried to scam me out of money but it did not happen I would like to talk to someone to see if I need to file complaint on information I have and turn over his name and information I have someone else does not go through this thank you
FTC Staff
March 05, 2020

In reply to by landmadonna

You can report that to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint. 

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