The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) has a brand new strategy to fight the impersonation scams that it says value individuals $1.1 billion final 12 months alone. Efficient right this moment, the company’s rule (PDF) “prohibits the impersonation of presidency, companies, and their officers or brokers in interstate commerce.” The rule additionally lets the FTC straight file federal courtroom complaints to power scammers to return cash stolen by enterprise or authorities impersonation.
Impersonation scams are wide-ranging — creators are looking out for faux podcast invitations that flip into letting scammers take over their Fb pages through a hidden “datasets” URL, whereas Verge reporters have been impersonated by criminals making an attempt to steal cryptocurrency through faux Calendly assembly hyperlinks.
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