FTC briefing targets scams hitting API communities in CA

FEDERAL and local agencies, community stakeholders, and ethnic media came together to raise public awareness and encourage people to report when they’ve been scammed.

Katsumi Iwasaki is originally from Tokyo but has lived in the Bay Area for more than thirty years. After losing his partner of more than two decades to cancer, the soft-spoken octogenarian went on dating apps at the urging of friends to cope with the loneliness.

That decision would ultimately lead him into the perilous world of romance scams, costing Iwasaki both his life savings – totaling more than $400,000 – and “my love.”

“I trusted him, because he was an Army officer, and because he was good looking,” recalls Iwasaki, chuckling slightly at the memory. Today he lives month-to-month on a meager budget. “Be careful out there,” he says, in reference to the growing minefield of scams and scam artists that in 2022 alone cost consumers $8.8 billion.

Iwasaki shared his experience during a March 30 forum on scams targeting API communities organized by the Federal Trade Commission to raise public awareness and encourage people to report when they’ve been scammed.

His was among a litany of cases discussed during the gathering, which was hosted by the FTC’s Western Regional Office in San Francisco and included representatives from federal and local agencies, community