Greg Esres wrote:

When being vectored, and ATC says your 4 miles from X, I noticed
occasionally that they state the wrong X. They confuse the FAF with
the IF. For this reason, I tell students to never rely on ATC's
distance statements to make a descent.

How often do others see this?

That's one of the many valuable purposes that a moving map of the MVA
chart would serve. Of course, with GPS, the pilot can, and should be,
the final authority on the distance to the final approach fix or point.