(Radio Iowa) – The Federal Trade Commission says it got nearly 14-thousand fraud reports from Iowa consumers during 2024. The median loss was around 400-dollars, while the total lost was nearly 52-million dollars. The F-T-C says the top categories of scams reported by Iowans were business and government imposter scams, online shopping scams, and scams involving prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries.

While the category of Iowa victims age 80 and older was one of the smallest, it was the largest for losses, averaging about two-thousand dollars each. Phony investment schemes took Iowans for nearly 20-million dollars, while the second-most expensive were romance scams, costing nearly eight-million.

ANCHOR TAG: Iowans can report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, or call the Consumer Protection Division of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office at 888-777-4590.