The Federal Trade Commission’s database receives reports directly from consumers — including protection issues such as identity theft, fraud and other categories. Reports are a key source for the FTC to conduct investigations and provide consumers with refunds. There were over 5 million reports overall in 2022. According to new data, some 48,226 of those were fraud reports from New Jersey consumers.

The most commonly reported fraud reports were  imposter scams and online shopping scams. Prizes, sweepstakes, investment related reports, job opportunities and lotteries were the top five fraud categories. New Jersey consumers have lost a total of over $200 million to fraud, and nationally the numbers are soaring.

“Nationally, consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022, up from $5.8 billion in 2021. Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams — more than $3.8 billion — than any other category in 2022,” said the FTC in a press release.