Scammers are calling Americans and claiming to be FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, pressuring targets to drain their bank accounts, 401(k) plans, and savings under the guise of “protecting” their money. The Federal Trade Commission has issued alerts in both English and Spanish warning that no one at the agency will ever ask consumers to move funds, withdraw retirement savings, or deposit cash at cryptocurrency ATMs. The scheme is not new, but the specific use of a sitting chairman’s name adds a layer of authority that can make even cautious people comply.
Why the chairman’s name makes this scam harder to spot
Government impersonation fraud works because it exploits trust in official institutions. When callers drop the name of a real, identifiable leader, the pitch sounds more credible than a generic “federal agent” claim. The FTC acknowledged this directly in a recent alert, stating plainly that Chairman Andrew Ferguson will never tell consumers to move money to protect it, withdraw from a 401(k) or savings account, or hand cash to a courier.
That alert, published in February, arrived during a period of rising fraud losses. Reported losses to fraud totaled $12.5 billion in 2024, according to an FTC press release issued in March. Whether the public naming of Chairman Ferguson in official warnings will drive a short-term spike in complaints filed through ReportFraud.ftc.gov is an open question. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel dashboards track government-impersonation complaints by state and age group, but no public breakout isolates reports that specifically reference the chairman’s name or the “move money to protect it” script. States with large concentrations of retirement-account holders could see disproportionate complaint volume, though that pattern has not been confirmed in published data.
A recurring tactic across FTC administrations
This is not the first time scammers have borrowed a chairman’s identity. In a 2020 blog post, the agency warned that fraudsters were sending messages that falsely appeared to come from then-Chairman Joseph Simons, and the FTC stressed that the chairman is not emailing consumers to offer money, request personal data, or demand payment. That earlier scheme relied on email rather than phone calls, but the core mechanic was the same: invoke the name of a real official to override a target’s skepticism.
The current variant has evolved. An FTC Data Spotlight published in August described multi-layer impersonation schemes aimed at older adults, in which scammers instruct victims to transfer money out of accounts, deposit cash into Bitcoin ATMs, or hand over cash or gold to couriers. The report noted that scammers sometimes pretend to be the FTC and even impersonate real staff members. The playbook has shifted from email to phone calls and from vague government references to named officials, making each iteration slightly more convincing.
How the calls typically unfold
In many cases, the call begins with a manufactured emergency: the caller claims that a victim’s identity has been stolen, that their bank account has been compromised, or that there is an “ongoing investigation” involving their Social Security number. The scammer then introduces the name of Chairman Andrew Ferguson or another FTC official to legitimize the story, sometimes claiming to be transferring the call to the chairman or reading from a script that includes his title.
From there, the pressure escalates. Victims are warned not to trust their bank, told to keep the call secret, and urged to act immediately to “secure” their funds. Instructions may include emptying bank accounts, cashing out retirement plans, buying cryptocurrency, or placing money in a supposed “safe account” controlled by the scammer. Any hesitation is met with threats of arrest, asset seizure, or loss of benefits.
Red flags and how to respond
The FTC’s guidance is clear: no one from the agency will ever ask you to move your money, pay with cryptocurrency, buy gift cards, or hand cash to a courier. They will not call out of the blue to threaten you, demand secrecy, or keep you on the line while you go to the bank. If any caller claiming to be from the FTC does these things, it is a scam.
Consumers who receive such calls should hang up immediately, avoid pressing any buttons, and not call back numbers provided by the caller. Instead, they can independently look up contact information for their bank or for the FTC and verify whether any issue exists. People who have already sent money are urged to contact their financial institutions as soon as possible and report the fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which helps investigators spot patterns and shut down repeat offenders.
Outreach in Spanish and communities at higher risk
The agency has emphasized that Spanish-speaking consumers are also being targeted. In a Spanish-language alert, the FTC stresses that no commissioner is calling to protect anyone’s money, and that instructions to move funds or buy cryptocurrency are a hallmark of fraud, not official procedure. This outreach is designed to reach communities that may be less familiar with the FTC’s role or more likely to trust a call that appears to come from a U.S. government agency.
Older adults, recent immigrants, and people with significant retirement savings remain prime targets, according to the agency’s data spotlights and enforcement actions. While the exact number of cases involving Chairman Ferguson’s name is not broken out in public statistics, the FTC’s repeated warnings suggest that impersonation of top officials is now a standard tool in the scammers’ kit. The agency’s message is consistent across languages and platforms: if someone claiming to be from the FTC tells you to move your money, it is not protection-it is a scam.
