Scams in the US: Who Gets Hit, How Much Is Lost, and What’s Driving It
Americans reported record fraud losses again last year. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data show consumers reported more than $12.5 billion lost to fraud in 2024, a 25 percent jump from 2023. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which tracks internet-enabled crime, logged 859,532 complaints and over $16 billion in reported losses in 2024, a 33 percent increase. The gap between the FTC and FBI totals reflects different reporting scopes and the fact that many victims never file a complaint, so the true toll is almost certainly higher.
What people are falling for hasn’t changed as much as how costly it has become. The FTC’s 2024 Data Book shows investment scams generated the largest losses, about $5.7 billion, with a median loss above $9,000 for those who paid. Impostor scams, criminals posing as the government, a business, tech support, or a relative, remained the most reported fraud category, producing $2.95 billion in losses from 845,806 reports. On the FBI side, the heaviest hitters among internet crimes included investment fraud and tech-support fraud.
How scams reach victims is shifting toward online touchpoints. The FTC reports that people lost over $3 billion to scams that started online in 2024, outpacing losses from more traditional contacts like calls, texts, or emails. Text-message scams alone cost Americans $470 million in 2024—more than five times the 2020 total—even as the number of text-scam reports declined, suggesting the average hit has gotten larger. Social platforms remain fertile ground for impostor and investment pitches because they blend credibility signals (profiles, mutuals) with fast, private messaging.
The biggest dollar losses are concentrated in a few payment rails. Among FTC fraud reports in 2024, bank transfers and payments accounted for roughly $2.0 billion in losses, followed by cryptocurrency at about $1.4 billion. Independent analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City underscores why these channels are so dangerous: the average loss per successful bank-transfer fraud was about $44,000 in 2024, versus $30,000 for crypto, far above cards or payment apps where chargeback and dispute rights add friction. Once funds move via a wire or on-chain, recovery prospects fall sharply.
Younger adults report losing money more often when they encounter fraud: in 2024, 44 percent of people ages 20–29 who filed an FTC fraud report said they lost money, compared with 24 percent for ages 70–79 and 21 percent for 80+. But when older adults do pay, the losses tend to be larger. IC3 tallied about $4.8 billion in losses among victims 60 and older in 2024, a group frequently hit by high-dollar tech-support, investment, and bank-transfer schemes.
Two forces are pushing losses higher: professionalized criminal operations and faster payments. Transnational fraud rings now use call centers, deepfake audio and video, and scripted “security” playbooks to coerce urgent transfers. At the same time, real-time bank payments and the ease of moving value via crypto shorten the window for banks or exchanges to freeze suspicious funds. The result shows up in the data: more people lost money in 2024 than in 2023, and the median loss rose in several high-risk categories, especially investment and government-impostor scams.
Prevention still hinges on slowing down and verifying the story before money moves. Criminals create false urgency, demand secrecy, and steer victims to irreversible payment methods—wires, crypto, cashier’s checks, and, in smaller-dollar schemes, gift cards. If an institution, “fraud department,” or government agency contacts you about moving funds, hang up and call back using a number you look up yourself. For internet-enabled fraud, file with the FBI IC3; for consumer fraud more broadly, report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Rapid reporting can improve the chances of asset freezes and helps agencies spot new tactics sooner.
A realistic outlook is that the headline numbers may keep rising even if complaint volumes don’t. The FTC notes that total reports were roughly flat while the share of reports with a financial loss increased, pointing to higher per-incident severity. Ransomware and other cyber extortion also continue to pressure infrastructure and businesses, indirectly affecting consumers through service disruptions and data breaches. Whether enforcement actions and platform safety changes can bend the loss curve lower will be clearer when the next annual FTC and IC3 updates arrive.
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