Did you recently get an official looking letter from the FTC?  More than likely the letter wasn’t official, or even from the FTC at all. In fact, scammers have been faking official-looking letterhead to write scary messages to people, threatening them.

There are reports of letters indicating that a person’s online and financial activities put him under suspicion of money laundering and terrorism. And now, all of their “activities will be under review.”

The FTC believe that this letter is just the first part of a scam. The second part involves “urgent” phone calls telling people to send money right away.

Here’s what you need to know to protect yourself against government imposters like these.

• The FTC will never send a letter like this, and they will never threaten you.
• The FTC does write back to people who write to them, and sometimes send letters about a refund from a case – but they never ask you to pay anything or give personal info to collect your funds. (Find more about FTC refunds at ftc.gov/redress .
• No government agency will ever demand that you pay by gift card, wiring money, or bitcoin. Anyone who does that is a scammer.
• Find out more about imposter scams of all sorts at ftc.gov/imposters .

If you get a letter from the FTC, they want to know. Before you do anything else, please call the FTC’s Consumer Response Center at 1.877.FTC.HELP (1.877.382.4357).