Consumer Fraud in the United States: The Second FTC Survey

This study reports the results of the Federal Trade Commission’s second statistical survey of fraud in the United States. The survey found that 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of one or more of the frauds included in the survey during the year studied. More people – an estimated 4.8 million U.S. consumers – were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than any of the other frauds covered by the survey. Fraudulent foreign lottery offers and buyers club memberships tied for second place in the survey, with an estimated 3.2 million people were victims of each of these frauds during the period studied. Fraudulent prize promotions and work-at-home programs ranked fourth and fifth