Halfway through 2026, the clearest picture we have of the fraud economy comes from the numbers Americans themselves reported for last year, and they are the worst on record. About $16 billion in fraud losses were reported to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network for 2025, an increase of roughly 25 percent over 2024, according to data the FTC released in June.
Those are only the losses people bothered to report. The real total is certainly higher, since many victims never file. But the reported data are detailed enough to show exactly where the money went, and where it is likely still going in the second half of this year.
The costliest fraud: fake investments
Measured in dollars, nothing else comes close. The FTC’s data show more than $7.9 billion in reported losses to investment scams in 2025, roughly half of everything reported, with a median individual loss above $10,000. That median is the number worth sitting with: the typical investment scam victim does not lose pocket change. These schemes are built to capture savings, often retirement savings.
The pattern is consistent. The pitch arrives through an ad, a direct message, or a friendly stranger who steers the conversation to money. The victim is walked onto a professional-looking trading platform, usually involving cryptocurrency, that shows steady fake gains. Deposits go through; withdrawals never do.
The most common fraud: imposters
By volume, imposter scams dominate. The FTC received more than one million imposter scam reports in 2025, nearly one in three of all fraud reports, with reported losses of $3.5 billion, close to triple the 2020 figure. People reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators, with bank impersonators the costliest of that group, and about $920 million to government impersonators. Both categories grew from 2024.
The most expensive versions often start with a fake security alert, frequently one pretending to come from your bank. The caller convinces the target that their money is in danger and must be moved to a “safe” account to protect it. Losses in these cases, the FTC notes, are often limited only by how much the victim has available to move.
The defense is a single habit: no legitimate bank, government agency, or company will ever call you and direct you to move money, buy gift cards, or feed cash into a bitcoin ATM. If a call raises your pulse, hang up and dial the institution back using the number on your card or statement.
Social media is the front door
Where do these scams begin? Increasingly, in your feed. In April, the FTC reported that nearly 30 percent of people who lost money to fraud in 2025 said the scam started on social media, with $2.1 billion in reported losses, an eightfold increase since 2020 and more than any other contact method.
The agency’s data spotlight breaks it down further. Losses tied to scams starting on Facebook exceeded those on any other platform. Investment scams that began on social media accounted for $1.1 billion, more than half the social media total. Shopping scams were the most frequently reported type: over 40 percent of people who lost money to a social media scam had ordered something from an ad that led to a fake or impersonated store. And nearly 60 percent of romance scam victims said the approach began on a social platform.
Every age group under 80 reported losing more money to scams that started on social media than through any other channel. For people 80 and over, the phone still ranks first, which is exactly why the fake-bank-call script remains aimed at older households.
What enforcement looks like
The FTC’s Impersonation Rule, finalized in 2024, lets the agency seek refunds and civil penalties from imposters directly. The commission says it has brought a dozen enforcement actions under the rule so far, recovering over $70 million for consumers, including cases against fake IRS tax-relief operations and phantom debt collectors. This June the agency and its partners also ran the “Never Ever” campaign, built around a simple list of things government agencies and banks will never do: demand money, threaten arrest, insist on secrecy, or ask you to move funds to protect them.
What to watch in the second half of 2026
Nothing in the data suggests the pressure eases this year. Expect more investment pitches dressed up as trading groups and coaching programs, more fake security alerts by phone and text, and more shopping ads that lead to storefronts that were built last week. Treat unsolicited contact about money as hostile until proven otherwise, and treat any payment demand in gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency as a scam by definition, because those are the rails legitimate businesses do not use.
If you have already been hit, act quickly: contact your bank or card issuer, then file a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Reporting will not always get money back, but it is how these numbers get counted, how investigators find patterns, and how the next target gets warned.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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