Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic in early last year, there has been a decrease in the number of reported scams to the Federal Trade Commission. Although, the number of people targeted and the average amount of money they are losing has increased. That’s according to an updated report released this morning by the Better Business Bureau.

Stephanie Garland of the Better Business Bureau in Springfield says scammers are mirroring a popular direct marketing company. “People are actually going ahead and mimicking Publisher Clearinghouse. And they are saying that congrats, you won, you can open the PDF file. They have a picture of a legitimate person. But it’s not really the person that’s emailing you, it’s actually a scammer who has stolen that person’s image.” A Joplin man received a phone call from a scammer saying that he won 5.5 million dollars in a mega-million drawing. He paid scammers and lost $37,000 after they said he had to pay taxes on his fake winnings.