On Feb. 15, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized its Government and Business Impersonation Rule, which will target scammers who impersonate businesses and government entities.

The new rule will allow the FTC to directly file federal court cases aimed at forcing scammers to return the money they made from business impersonation scams. This includes seeking direct monetary relief from scammers that:

• Use business logos when communicating with consumers by mail or online.
• Spoof business emails and web addresses, including using lookalike email addresses or websites that rely on misspellings of a company’s name.
• Falsely imply business affiliation by using terms that are known to be affiliated with a business (e.g.,the “NAHB Builders Show Conference & Exhibition” and other variations on the name International Builders’ Show).

The publication of the final rule comes after the two rounds of public comment in response to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking issued in December 2021, a notice of proposed rulemaking issued in September 2022.

NAHB and more than 200 other trade associations and organizations with business events sent a letter to the FTC in March 2023 to urge the agency to finalize its proposed rule as impersonation scams impacting organizations, including trade shows such as the International Builders’ Show, continue to increase. NAHB also hosted the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance (ECA) to organize lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill prior to the FTC’s informal hearing in May 2023.

The FTC received fraud reports from 2.6 million consumers last year. The most commonly reported scam category was imposter scams, which saw significant increases in reports of both business and government impersonators. Consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, marking a 14% increase over reported losses in 2022. Of that total, $2.7 billion came from imposter scams. 

The rule will be published in the Federal Register shortly and will become effective 30 days after publication. The public comment period will remain open for 60 days following publication.