Scammers looking to obtain payment methods through impersonation imitated Best Buy or its Geek Squad tech support service the most compared with other companies in 2023, per the Federal Trade Commission.

According to new data released by the FTC last week, 52,000 reports were filed to the agency in 2023 by consumers saying they were targeted by people impersonating Best Buy or the Geek Squad.

The FTC said such scammers use prompts that say, “A computer service you never signed up for is about to renew — to the tune of several hundred dollars.” They cost Best Buy consumers $15 million.

Amazon imitators were the second-largest group in 2023, at 34,000 reports with $19 million in losses.

On the money scale, the largest losses in 2023 were incurred due to scammers impersonating Microsoft, stealing $60 million, followed by Publishers Clearing House imitators who nabbed $49 million, according to the FTC data. Both types of impersonators netted over 7,000 consumer reports.

Microsoft impersonators use fake security warnings that pop up on your computer screen with a fraudulent number to call, while PCH phonies use the lure of a false sweepstake win to induce the consumer to pay fees to collect winnings that don’t exist.

Email and phone calls were the most common form of scam solicitation in 2023, the FTC said.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.