The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released the results of a study on the most impersonated companies in 2023 to help potential customers and victims better prepare for such attacks.
According to the report, Best Buy and its subsidiary Geek Squad were the biggest victims of identity theft, with a total of 52,000 reported cases, causing losses of $15 million.
The top three were Amazon with 34,000 complaints and PayPal with 10,000 reports. The 10 most impersonated companies alone accounted for a total of 132,000 confirmed cases of impersonation scams, with many more likely going unchecked or unnoticed.
Beware of impersonation scams by these companies
Financial losses associated with the Best Buy and Geek Squad scams landed the company in sixth place, despite having significantly more recognized instances of identity theft than any other company. Though the tech giant had a significantly lower number of documented frauds (7,000), its losses of $15 million were dwarfed by the $60 million Microsoft-related losses.
The difference is even larger when comparing the average cost per attack: $288 for Best Buy/Geek Squad and $8,571 for Microsoft.
Given the unsettling outlook, the FTC released information on the most common techniques to watch out for, including service renewal charges, fake security pop-ups, and charges for claiming non-existent prizes. The FTC also noted that social media is on the rise as an attack vector, along with traditional email and fraudulent gift cards.
To help customers avoid falling victim to scams, the FTC advises buyers to question and dispute anyone who asks for payment in certain methods, such as gift cards, cryptocurrency, etc. Customers should report scams through ReportFraud.ftc.gov and provide the FTC with more information about the fraudulent activity to help prevent future attacks.
