FTC Reports on Scammed NJ Residents

The Federal Trade Commission received 54,494 fraud reports from consumers in New Jersey in 2021, according to newly released data.
New Jersey consumers reported losing a total of $122,175,462 to fraud, with a median loss of $508.
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network is a database that receives reports directly from consumers, as well as from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members, and non-profit organizations. Reports from around the country about consumer protection issues—including identity theft, fraud, and other categories—are a key resource for FTC investigations that stop illegal activities and, when possible, provide refunds to consumers.
Across all types of reports, the FTC received a total of 130,173 reports from consumers in New Jersey in 2021.
The top category of reports received from consumers in New Jersey was Identity Theft; followed by Credit Bureaus, Information Furnishers and Report Users; Imposter Scams; Online Shopping and Negative Reviews; and Banks and Lenders.
Fraud Losses Up Nationwide
Nationally, consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, up from $3.4 billion in 2020. More than $2.3 billion of losses reported last year were due to imposter scams, while online shopping accounted for about $392 million in reported losses from consumers.
The FTC received 2.8 million fraud reports from consumers in 2021, with imposter scams remaining the most common type of fraud reported to the agency. Online shopping was the second-most common fraud category reported by consumers.
Prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; internet services; and business and job opportunities rounded out the top five fraud categories nationally.
Sentinel received more than 5.7 million reports overall in 2021. Of these, more than 1.4 million were identity theft reports received through the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website.
The FTC uses the reports it receives through Sentinel as the starting point for many of its law enforcement investigations, and the agency also shares these reports with approximately 2,800 federal, state, local, and international law enforcement professionals. While the FTC does not intervene in individual complaints, Sentinel reports are a vital part of the agency’s law enforcement mission.
A full breakdown of reports received in 2021 is now available on the FTC’s data analysis site at https://ftc.gov/exploredata. The data dashboards there break down the reports across a number of categories, including by state and metropolitan area.