Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent US federal agency with a dual mandate: preventing anticompetitive business practices and protecting consumers from deceptive, unfair, or fraudulent acts. For everyday fraud victims, its most relevant function is Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure database that aggregates fraud reports from consumers, businesses, and partner organisations and shares them with law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Consumers file reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC uses this data to pursue enforcement actions — often resulting in injunctions, civil penalties, and orders for restitution — against large-scale fraud operations. Its annual Consumer Sentinel Data Book is a leading source of statistics on fraud losses by type, payment method, and demographic.

The FTC also publishes practical guidance (consumer.ftc.gov) on recognising and recovering from specific scam types, and it enforces the Do Not Call Registry, the CAN-SPAM Act, and rules governing telemarketing, negative-option subscriptions, and business opportunity scams.