The definition of fraud is when another party has been deceived. Typically, consumers suffer from fraud. A lot of these fraudsters tend to choose their victims. Seniors and the gullible types are usually the ones targeted by fraudsters. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) does its best to be able to protect consumers from these practices. Unfortunately, this problem is quite prevalent. In 2018, a study discovered that there were 14.4 million cases of fraud in the United States.
Knowing the red flags and avoiding fraud is the best thing that you can do to protect yourself from consumer fraud. Here are some of the most common consumer fraud practices that you commonly see online.
Identity Theft
A lot of people are not aware that they are victims of identity theft. It could be because you are too careless when it comes to your personal information. Perhaps, you don’t even check the website that you use to purchase items.
Some of the most common signs that you are a victim of identity theft is when someone starts doing transactions on your behalf. Also, you get to see your bank account losing money even when you didn’t withdraw funds. There are even instances when victims of identity theft incur debts that they didn’t even make.
If you are faced with these types of problems, you’ve been a victim of identity theft. The first thing that you should do in case you became a victim of identity theft is to go to the Federal Trade Commission or the FTC’s website. Here, you will know more about the next steps that you should be taking. You can report what happened to your accounts and stop these debtors from harassing you.
Mortgage Fraud
A lot of people are also victims of mortgage fraud. This is usually done by real estate professionals who know the industry too well. Some of the usual scams include foreclosure rescue schemes and loan modification schemes. Since this is a scam, there is no foreclosure rescue. Or perhaps, no loan modification ever took place. One of the biggest red flags is when you were told to not pay the money or report to your mortgage servicer. Unfortunately, you can lose a lot of money from mortgage fraud.
To be able to protect yourself, you want to make sure that you are going to deal with someone who is highly reputable. You also want to make sure that you don’t start signing anything that you don’t fully understand. You also want to ask the help of an attorney in case you find yourself in this type of problem.
Credit Card Fraud
One of the most common problems by consumers is credit card fraud. Unfortunately, there are different ways of how someone can obtain your credit card information. It could be when you withdraw cash from some obscure location or when you bought items using your card.
What you can do is to make sure that you are going to check your statement always. If you get to see purchases that you don’t recognize, be sure to report it to your credit card provider immediately.
Fraud is a huge problem for a lot of consumers. They end up losing money because they are not too careful when it comes to their activities. Knowing these common fraud practices will help protect you in the long run.
