The Sentinel Team has been beavering away all Spring to add new data sources, including several for toll scams. We appreciate the cooperation that we have received from state motor vehicle and transportation agencies. There are presently about 40 new toll scam data sources representing 30 states. Beyond that, we have also added two federal transportation sources: the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. The FTC provides information on how consumers can learn more about toll scams as well as how to spot and avoid text scams at ftc.gov/textscams.
|
|
|
Outside of transportation data sources, we also added the American Express Company, Charter Communications, Inc., the National Science Foundation, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. These five new data sources are largely providing quality business and government impostor scams. More data sources to come this Summer!
|
Our latest Data Spotlight shows that in 2024, consumers reported losing $470 million to scams that started with text messages. This amount is five times higher than what was reported in 2020, even though the number of reports declined. Fake package delivery issues and phony job opportunities are prominent in the reporting. |
|
 |
For the year to date, the Sentinel Team has conducted 12 outreach events for over 350 people. Notable events include Sentinel presentations to the National Association of Attorneys General, State Center Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting; the Justice Clearinghouse, an educational platform for justice and public safety professionals; the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, which has assisted us with toll scam reporting; and the Non-Government Organizations Information Sharing and Analysis Center. We look forward to presenting Sentinel to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Basic Fraud Mail Class in July.
|
|
Sentinel has an expansive capacity of fraud reports from well over 100 different data sources every month. You can find data from a specific source by clicking “Complaint Source” on the left-hand navigator after a search or in Advanced Search.
|
We are pleased to hear of several success stories where law enforcement used Sentinel data to stop fraud. The U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York successfully prosecuted a defendant who created fake merchant accounts in a $19 million credit card laundering scheme. The FTC reached a $5 million settlement with Paddle.com and its subsidiary, which processed payments for deceptive tech-support schemes that targeted U.S. consumers including older adults. The FTC also used Sentinel to provide consumer redress: it sent more than $18 million in refunds to consumers harmed by misleading claims made by Publishers Clearing House. The FTC will provide $17 million in redress to FTC complaint charges that cash advance company Cleo AI misleads consumers about how much money they could get and how fast that money could be available. And more than 40,000 people will receive a refund as a result of the FTC’s settlement with Cerebral, Inc, an online mental health service provider that allegedly billed consumers despite their requests to cancel their subscriptions.
|
Want to learn more Sentinel searching tips like the one above? The next online Sentinel training session will be on Wednesday, July 2nd at 12:00 EST. The following one will be on Thursday, August 28th at 3:00 EST. Please contact sentinel@ftc.gov to register or find out about future monthly sessions.
|
|
|
|
