Misleading, fraudulent, and unwanted solicitations can be extremely impactful and harmful. If you have received one of these solicitations or are aware of a scam, we want to hear from you.
Types of Solicitations
| Mail Solicitations: Deceptive mailers and advertisements | Robocalls: Recorded messages or computer generated calls |
| Phishing and SPAM: Unsolicited or fraudulent emails | Telemarketing: Unwanted or fraudulent telemarketing calls |
| Scams: Fraudulent attempts to steal your money | Text Messages: Unwanted or fraudulent text messages |
Learn more about Common Scams and Telephone Calls
Check Scams
Consumers are frequently faced with a variety of scams that involve the use of forged or fraudulent checks, often times resulting in extreme financial hardships.
The fake checks appear to very authentic including the name of a legitimate United States bank and even containing the magnetic routing codes that appear along the bottom of the check, but most are fraudulent.
Learn more at:
Dating and Romance Scams
Scammers may represent themselves as beautiful foreign models, wealthy businessmen, or even deployed military servicemembers trying to attract a lover, but most use very ordinary seeming profiles. Advances in technology have made it increasingly more difficult to determine who really is behind the computer screen. It could be the love of your life, or it could be an individual involved in an organized criminal ring.
Learn more at:
Debt Collection Scams
While debt collection scams occur in many different variants, most consumers are exposed this type of scam by receiving a threatening call from individuals who claim they will have you arrested or thrown in jail if you don’t pay your debt immediately. These callers often impersonate law enforcement officials in an attempt to have you pay a fake debt by using prepaid credit cards, Apple and Google Play cards, as well as other prepaid financial tools to steal your money.
IRS Scams
You get a call from someone claiming to be a federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent and they are seeking immediate payment of taxes they claim you owe. The phony agents use intimidation tactics such as threats of arrest, liens on property, deportation, or driver’s license revocation to scare consumers into making payments or disclosing personal information. The imposters often have just enough personal information to convince a taxpayer they are legitimate.
Learn more at:
Phishing Scams
Phishing attempts look like they’re from a company you know or trust. They may look like they’re from a bank, a credit card company, a social networking site, an online payment website or app, or an online store. These attempts are all designed to trick you into giving them your personal information, like social security numbers, bank accounts, login id's, and other personal information.
Learn more at:
Social Security Scams
Scammers pretend to be from Social Security Administration and try to get your social security number or money. The scammers typically claim their is a problem with your Social Security Number and threaten to suspend your social security number and throw you in jail if you do not pay them immediately.
Learn more by visiting the Social Security Administration at:
Sweepstakes and Lotteries
Are you really a sweepstakes winner? Probably not. As a general rule, any solicitation through the mail, by telephone, or electronically (email or text message) that requires the purchase of any product, or the payment of any fee as a condition to entering or winning a sweepstakes is illegal.
Other sweepstakes – as well as foreign lotteries – are complete scams. No prizes are ever awarded and the solicitations are designed to steal either your money or your identity, or both. These solicitations often use names similar to well-known sweepstakes and typically require the payment of some kind of fee in order to “claim” a prize.
Learn more at:
Tech Support Scams
You receive a phone call out of the blue – or a pop-up message suddenly appears on your computer screen –
“Your computer may have been infected with a virus …”
The caller offers to assist in removing any virus supposedly infecting your computer or the message invites you to visit a website or call a number for assistance. Unless you simply hang up the phone or quickly delete the message, you are about to become the next victim of the epidemic of technical support scams.
Learn more at:
Top 10 Scams Impacting Older Adults
Click here to learn more about he Top scams impacting older adults.
For additional information and to learn more about issues impacting older Coloradans, please visit:
Work at Home Scams
You may hear the advertisements on late night television, see it on Internet sites such as Craigslist, or read about it an unsolicited email for a chance to make thousands of dollars and pay off all your debt with very little effort.
The ads sound enticing as the claims of large earning potential with little expenditure is appealing to many workers looking to supplement their income or to outright increase their net-worth. The reality is these types of scams are designed to simply unjustly enrich scammers.
Learn More at:
Consumers are frequently faced with a variety of scams that involve the use of forged or fraudulent checks, often times resulting in extreme financial hardships.
The fake checks appear to very authentic including the name of a legitimate United States bank and even containing the magnetic routing codes that appear along the bottom of the check, but most are fraudulent.
Learn more at:
Scammers may represent themselves as beautiful foreign models, wealthy businessmen, or even deployed military servicemembers trying to attract a lover, but most use very ordinary seeming profiles. Advances in technology have made it increasingly more difficult to determine who really is behind the computer screen. It could be the love of your life, or it could be an individual involved in an organized criminal ring.
Learn more at:
While debt collection scams occur in many different variants, most consumers are exposed this type of scam by receiving a threatening call from individuals who claim they will have you arrested or thrown in jail if you don’t pay your debt immediately. These callers often impersonate law enforcement officials in an attempt to have you pay a fake debt by using prepaid credit cards, Apple and Google Play cards, as well as other prepaid financial tools to steal your money.
You get a call from someone claiming to be a federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent and they are seeking immediate payment of taxes they claim you owe. The phony agents use intimidation tactics such as threats of arrest, liens on property, deportation, or driver’s license revocation to scare consumers into making payments or disclosing personal information. The imposters often have just enough personal information to convince a taxpayer they are legitimate.
Learn more at:
Phishing attempts look like they’re from a company you know or trust. They may look like they’re from a bank, a credit card company, a social networking site, an online payment website or app, or an online store. These attempts are all designed to trick you into giving them your personal information, like social security numbers, bank accounts, login id's, and other personal information.
Learn more at:
Scammers pretend to be from Social Security Administration and try to get your social security number or money. The scammers typically claim their is a problem with your Social Security Number and threaten to suspend your social security number and throw you in jail if you do not pay them immediately.
Learn more by visiting the Social Security Administration at:
Are you really a sweepstakes winner? Probably not. As a general rule, any solicitation through the mail, by telephone, or electronically (email or text message) that requires the purchase of any product, or the payment of any fee as a condition to entering or winning a sweepstakes is illegal.
Other sweepstakes – as well as foreign lotteries – are complete scams. No prizes are ever awarded and the solicitations are designed to steal either your money or your identity, or both. These solicitations often use names similar to well-known sweepstakes and typically require the payment of some kind of fee in order to “claim” a prize.
Learn more at:
You receive a phone call out of the blue – or a pop-up message suddenly appears on your computer screen –
“Your computer may have been infected with a virus …”
The caller offers to assist in removing any virus supposedly infecting your computer or the message invites you to visit a website or call a number for assistance. Unless you simply hang up the phone or quickly delete the message, you are about to become the next victim of the epidemic of technical support scams.
Learn more at:
Click here to learn more about he Top scams impacting older adults.
For additional information and to learn more about issues impacting older Coloradans, please visit:
You may hear the advertisements on late night television, see it on Internet sites such as Craigslist, or read about it an unsolicited email for a chance to make thousands of dollars and pay off all your debt with very little effort.
The ads sound enticing as the claims of large earning potential with little expenditure is appealing to many workers looking to supplement their income or to outright increase their net-worth. The reality is these types of scams are designed to simply unjustly enrich scammers.
Learn More at:
Business telephone numbers and personal telephone numbers used for business purposes may be exempt from traditional no-call rules.
Charities can make these calls themselves. But if a charity hires someone to make robocalls on its behalf, the robocalls can only go to members of the charity or prior donors. They also must include an automated option to let you stop future calls.
A business contacting you to collect a debt can use robocalls to reach you. But robocalls that try to sell you services to reduce your debt are illegal and are almost certainly scams.
This includes a robocall from a pharmacy reminding you to refill a prescription or from your health care provider confirming a medical appointment.
Robocalls about your flight being cancelled, reminding you about an appointment, or letting you know about a delayed school opening fall into this category, if the caller doesn’t also try to sell you something.
Calls made within 30 days after you contact a business to inquire about the potential purchase of goods or services or until you request that no further calls be made, whichever occurs first.
Political calls and robocalls from politicians are permitted under the Colorado No-Call rules.
Want to File a Complaint?
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