The Federal Trade Commission testified before the Joint Economic Committee on Mar. 25 about its ongoing efforts to fight fraud and protect consumers from scams and deceptive practices.
Lois Greisman, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, said that combating fraud is central to the agency’s consumer protection mission. She explained that the FTC pursues this goal through aggressive law enforcement actions against those who perpetrate or facilitate fraud, as well as through consumer education and outreach initiatives.
In Fiscal Year 2025, Greisman said the FTC brought 40 law enforcement actions targeting fraudulent schemes such as business opportunities, investment scams, unlawful robocalls, technical support scams, impersonation frauds, and unfair fees. These actions resulted in more than $1.8 billion in redress for consumers affected by deceptive business practices.
Greisman also highlighted that consumer reports play a key role in guiding the agency's work. In 2025, she said the FTC received three million fraud reports via its Consumer Sentinel Network—an increase from 2.6 million reports in the previous year—with reported losses rising from over $12 billion to $15.9 billion. Imposter scams were noted as the most frequently reported type of fraud since 2020; over one million imposter scam reports were filed with losses exceeding $3.5 billion. However, investment scams led to even greater financial harm with consumers reporting $7.9 billion lost last year.
The testimony outlined international cooperation efforts by describing a settlement against Paddle—a U.K.-based payment processor operating in the United States—which allegedly facilitated tech-support scammers based in Cyprus.
Alongside enforcement activities, Greisman said that education remains vital for prevention: "The FTC works to prevent fraud by arming consumers with information they need to protect themselves." The agency provides blogs, alerts, videos, webinars and social media posts warning about emerging trends.
The Commission voted unanimously (2-0) to approve this testimony.
