Helping residents avoid scams
How local governments can connect residents with trusted fraud prevention resources.
Every scam begins with a lie made to feel true. The right message, sent to the right person at the right time, with just enough information to make deception look like an informed decision.
Scam messages often appear to come from organizations people already know and trust—a bank, an online retailer, a delivery service, or a government agency.
To the unassuming eye, especially when a message comes directly through a work email, personal phone, or another familiar channel, it can feel real. That appearance of credibility is what allows a scam to work. A convincing scam often contains enough truth to appear credible. It may use a real company’s name, imitate a familiar website, refer to an actual purchase, or include personal information found online. By mixing recognizable information with false claims, scammers make people believe they are acting on complete and trustworthy information when they are not.
Illustration of scam attempts reaching toward a piggy bank, symbolizing the importance of trusted information and fraud prevention.
The scale of the problem is significant. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers submitted 3 million fraud reports in 2025 and reported losing approximately $15.9 billion, including more than $3.5 billion from imposter scams alone. Because many incidents go unreported, the true impact is likely even greater.
Today’s scams are increasingly sophisticated. They can imitate legitimate emails and websites, disguise phone numbers, personalize messages using publicly available information, and even generate realistic images, videos, and voices using artificial intelligence. Different tactics target different audiences, from older adults and public benefit recipients to online shoppers.
Being targeted does not mean someone is careless. Many scams succeed because they arrive when a person is busy, worried, distracted, or already expecting to hear from the organization being impersonated. Spam filters, call screening, fraud alerts, and multifactor authentication all help, but they cannot prevent every deceptive message from reaching someone’s inbox or phone.
There is usually an opportunity to pause, verify, and fact-check before responding. Local governments can help by sharing trusted resources and giving residents clear steps for preventing, recognizing, and reporting fraud.
Why local governments have a role
Local governments are often among the institutions residents encounter most frequently. People visit municipal websites, follow local agencies online, receive community newsletters, use public libraries, attend public events, and turn to local officials when they do not know where else to seek help. That relationship can make local government an important messenger.
A city or county does not need to become the primary source of legal or financial advice. Its role can be as simple as directing residents to authoritative information, reinforcing protective habits, and explaining where people can report suspected fraud or seek help.
This role can be valuable when scams exploit local circumstances. Fraudulent appeals may appear after a natural disaster, during tax season, around the launch of a public-benefit program, or following another event that creates uncertainty. Timely communication from a familiar local source can encourage residents to pause and verify a request before responding.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s fraud and scams hub gives local leaders a useful starting point. It organizes information around three things residents need to be able to do, including how to prevent fraud, recognize it, and take action when something goes wrong.
Help residents respond and report
People need clear instructions about what to do after they notice suspicious activity. The CFPB provides guidance for situations involving missing funds, identity theft, financial exploitation, and other forms of fraud. Its collection includes information about disputing unauthorized checking-account transactions, placing security freezes or fraud alerts, and finding assistance after a scam.
Residents can report fraud and scams to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. People experiencing identity theft can create a personalized recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov. Local resource pages can supplement those national reporting channels with appropriate community contacts, including:
Local law enforcement
Adult protective services
Legal-aid organizations
Emergency-management agencies
Victim-support programs
State consumer-protection offices
Agencies should explain what each office can and cannot do. Clear expectations help residents reach the right organization without assuming that one report automatically reaches every relevant agency.
Share trusted resources before residents need them
One of the simplest ways local governments can help protect residents is by making trusted fraud prevention resources easy to find and easy to share. Rather than creating new guidance from scratch, agencies can draw on existing materials developed by organizations dedicated to constituent financial protection.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has maintained a library of articles, downloadable handouts, videos, and educational resources that explain how to prevent scams, recognize warning signs, respond to fraud, and recover after identity theft or financial exploitation. As the Bureau’s role in consumer education changes, many standing resources remain valuable references that local governments can continue to share with residents.
Communications teams can also prepare resource pages and printed materials before moments of increased risk, such as tax season, disaster recovery efforts, or the launch of new public benefit programs. Having trusted information ready makes it easier to respond quickly when new scams begin circulating.
Local governments may also consider maintaining local copies of the public resources they rely on. If federal guidance is ever reorganized, relocated, or removed, communities can continue providing residents with access to vetted educational materials without interruption.
Helping residents avoid scams does not require every local government to become an expert in fraud prevention. One of the most valuable roles local governments can play is connecting people with trustworthy information before they need it most.
The following resources provide a strong starting point for local governments looking to expand or strengthen fraud protection outreach in their communities.
Resources local governments can share
Fraud & Scams hub from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Printable handouts and consumer education materials from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
ReportFraud.ftc.gov from the Federal Trade Commission
IdentityTheft.gov from the Federal Trade Commission
The content on this page provides general consumer information. It is not legal advice or regulatory guidance.
Illustration by Summer 2026 intern, Gina Bae.
