Imposters have overtaken identity thieves to become the nation’s top fraudsters, according to the latest consumer complaint data from the FTC.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel project, which tallies up the number and type of consumer complaints received each year, reported more than 3 million imposters in 2016. Debt collection remains the No. 1 complaint, accounting for some 28 percent of reported complaints. However, the bulk of debt-collection complaints involve overly aggressive collection tactics, not fraud.