The Federal Trade Commissions List of Top 10 Consumer Scams - Speech or Presentation Example

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) main goal is to protect consumers and guarantee a strong competitive market by implementing a variety of consumer protection and antitrust laws. The laws are used to guard against destructive business practices. They also protect markets from any anti-competitive practices and these include price-fixing conspiracies and huge mergers. The agency collects complaints about companies, business practices and identity theft.

A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report released in 2011 indicates that in 2010, the agency received around 1.4 million complaints that were related to consumer scams. The report further indicates that in imposter scams, the offenders posed as family, government agencies, respected companies, and friends in order to extort money from unsuspecting consumers. This is the first time such a scenario is happening in the history of imposter scams. The list below shows the top ten consumer scams according to the FTC: (1) identity theft, (2) debt collection, (3) internet services, (4) prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries, (5) shop-at-home and catalog sales, (6) imposter scams, (7) internet auctions, (8) foreign money/counterfeit check scams, (9) telephone and mobile services, and (10) credit cards (Federal Trade Commission 1).

The Federal Trade Commission has taken measures to prevent consumers from falling into these scams. One of the recent measures taken is the development of a new consumer alert that will assist the consumers in avoiding imposter scams; the alert goes by the title “Spotting an Imposter” (Federal Trade Commission 1). There are several tips for consumers that have been offered by Federal Trade Commission:
a. The consumers should know the people they are dealing with and they should work with companies that plainly offer their addresses and information.
b. The consumer should protect personal information.
c. The consumer is supposed to take his or her own time before acting.
d. It is important to have all the promises in writing and all the paperwork should be read before making any transaction.
e. When an offer is free it is free; the consumer should resist the urge to pay a small fee or gift in order to get the offer.
f. If the consumer thinks he is a victim of fraud; the fraud should be reported immediately to the necessary authorities (Federal Trade Commission 1).

In conclusion, consumer scams affect everyone directly and indirectly. It is up to the parties involved in making any transactions to make sure that all loopholes that can pave way for a scam are sealed. It is imperative for the victims of scams to report any incident of fraud to the necessary authorities in order to prevent the future occurrence of such scams.