According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), since the beginning of 2020, Americans have lost $545 million due to COVID-related scams.

From January 1 of last year to August 30 this year, the agency received nearly 589,000 consumer complaints related to the epidemic. About 61% of these complaints involved fraud, with a median loss of $380 per case.

According to a recent report by the Consumer Federation of America (Consumer Federation of America), a survey of state and local consumer agencies showed that price fraud was the most common problem associated with the pandemic in 2020. Consumers are complaining that popular products such as hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and masks are overpriced.

The true scope of consumer complaints and losses may be much greater than official statistics suggest, as these data are self-reported by consumers.

Among the fraud cases reported to the Federal Trade Commission, the number of online shopping-related scams was the highest, with nearly 55,000 cases.

However, vacation and travel-related fraud caused the most losses, with losses totaling $79 million. The FTC said most of the scams involved refunds and cancellation of bookings.