Although identity theft still topped the Federal Trade Commission's consumer complaints report for 2015, impostor scams increased significantly.
The FTC's 2014 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded that approximately 11 percent of the total year's complaints were impostor scams. Impostor scams include someone claiming to be someone they are not or claiming to work for a government agency or private entity when they do not, often benefiting financially, according to the FTC's definition. The number of impostor scams climbed from 4.03 percent in 2012 to 5.8 percent in 2013 and nearly doubled to 10.71 percent in 2014.
The majority of the scams reported were of individuals pretending to represent government agencies, but 3.82 percent were impostors in businesses.
The healthcare industry saw several notable recent impostor schemes. One took place at West Beach, Fla.-based St. Mary's Medical Center, where a teenager posed as a physician for a month before being exposed by an actual physician. Another took place in Maryland in 2013 when a woman forged a physician assistant certificate and posed as a PA, treating 137 infants and children before being exposed.