Consumers have lost $586 million to fraud linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission, CNBC.com reported. Americans filed more than 269,000 fraud complaints from the beginning of 2020 to Oct. 14, 2021, according to most recent federal data. (Consumers cited Covid, stimulus or related terms in the complaints.) The typical victim (as measured by the median) lost $392, in a range of schemes targeting online shoppers, travelers and others. The losses skew higher for older Americans: Seniors over age 80 lost $1,000 each. However, pandemic-related scams appear to be declining, officials report. There were 273 consumer complaints filed Thursday (as measured by the rolling 14-day average), according to FTC data. That’s the lowest level since March 16, 2020. It’s also about eight times less than the 2,100-daily-complaint peak in early April this year, around the time Covid vaccinations were beginning to be deployed more broadly and the federal government was issuing $1,400 stimulus checks authorized by the American Rescue Plan. Online shopping accounted for the largest number of reported scams to the FTC, at about 57,600 complaints.
