SEATTLE — Telephone fraudsters often pretend to be with a government agency or a company you know and trust, such as Visa, Apple or Amazon.
A new report from the Federal Trade Commission finds that phone scams involving Amazon imposters are skyrocketing.
Between July 2020 and June 2021, about 96,000 people reported being targeted by Amazon imposters, up more than fivefold from the year before. To put that into perspective, the FTC received about 16,000 reports regarding Apple, the second most impersonated company.
Reported losses to bogus Amazon calls topped $27 million during that one-year time period. The median loss was about $1,000.