State of Scams 2026: America’s Top 25 Scams — Ranked by Every State & City
That’s the number the FBI just put on paper: $20.8 billion stolen from Americans in a single year. Two years ago it was $12.5 billion. We pulled federal data from every available source, ranked all 25 scam types, and mapped losses across every state and 50 metro areas so you can see exactly where the damage lands.
Published July 2026 · Data from FBI IC3, FTC Consumer Sentinel, BBB Scam Tracker · By Social Catfish Research
1. The Big Picture: 3-Year Scam Trends (2023–2025)
Here’s what jumps out when you line the last three years of FBI IC3 data up side by side: losses aren’t just climbing — they’re picking up speed. The bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged $12.5 billion in 2023, $16.6 billion in 2024, and now $20.8 billion. That 67% leap in twenty-four months outpaces almost every other category of property crime in the country.
Put differently, $20.8 billion is larger than Iceland’s entire GDP. And that figure almost certainly undercounts the real damage. The FBI has long noted that somewhere between 2% and 6% of fraud victims ever bother to file a report. Run the math and you land in the neighborhood of $195 billion a year — a hole in the economy that barely makes the evening news.
FBI IC3: Year-Over-Year Comparison
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2-Yr Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Complaints | 880,418 | 859,532 | 1,008,597 | +14.6% |
| Total Losses | $12.5B | $16.6B | $20.8B | +66.4% |
| Avg Loss per Complaint | $14,196 | $19,372 | $20,699 | +45.8% |
| Cryptocurrency Losses | $5.6B | $9.3B | $11.4B | +103.6% |
| Victims Aged 60+ | 101,068 | 147,127 | 201,266 | +99.1% |
FTC Consumer Sentinel: Year-Over-Year Comparison
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2-Yr Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Fraud Reports | 2.6M | 2.6M | ~3.0M | +15% |
| Total Fraud Losses | $10.0B | $12.5B | ~$16B | +60% |
| Imposter Scam Reports | 854,000 | 846,000 | 1,000,000+ | +17%+ |
| Imposter Scam Losses | $2.7B | $2.95B | $3.5B | +30% |
⚠️ Key Trend: Scams cost more per victim, not just more victims.
2. The Top 25 Scams of 2025, Ranked by Financial Losses
We ranked every crime type the FBI tracks by total dollar losses, then pulled the two prior years for comparison. A few of these categories will look familiar. Others — like the explosion in employment scams — caught us off guard.
| # | Scam Type | 2025 Losses | 2024 | 2023 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Investment Fraud (incl. Pig Butchering) | $8,648,617,756 | $6,570,639,864 | $4,570,275,683 | +31.6% |
| 2 | Business Email Compromise (BEC) | $3,046,598,558 | $2,770,151,146 | $2,946,830,270 | +10.0% |
| 3 | Tech / Customer Support Scams | $2,134,675,818 | $1,464,755,976 | $924,512,658 | +45.7% |
| 4 | Personal Data Breach | $1,314,923,988 | $1,453,296,303 | $744,219,879 | -9.5% |
| 5 | Confidence / Romance Scams | $929,287,469 | $672,009,052 | $652,544,805 | +38.3% |
| 6 | Government Impersonation | $797,943,193 | $405,624,084 | $394,050,518 | +96.7% |
| 7 | Non-Payment / Non-Delivery | $503,373,587 | $785,436,888 | $309,648,416 | -35.9% |
| 8 | Data Breach (Corporate) | $435,240,992 | $364,855,818 | $534,397,222 | +19.3% |
| 9 | Employment / Job Scams | $362,934,762 | $264,223,271 | $70,234,079 | +37.4% |
| 10 | Credit Card / Check Fraud | $282,670,235 | $199,889,841 | $173,627,614 | +41.4% |
| 11 | Real Estate Fraud | $275,110,419 | $173,586,820 | $145,243,348 | +58.5% |
| 12 | Phishing / Spoofing | $215,843,126 | $70,013,036 | $18,728,550 | +208.3% |
| 13 | Lottery / Sweepstakes / Inheritance | $194,147,851 | $102,212,250 | $94,502,836 | +89.9% |
| 14 | Identity Theft | $185,832,657 | $174,354,745 | $126,203,809 | +6.6% |
| 15 | Advance Fee Fraud | $155,910,852 | $102,074,512 | $134,516,577 | +52.7% |
| 16 | Extortion / Sextortion | $122,499,133 | $143,185,736 | $74,821,835 | -14.4% |
| 17 | Ransomware | $32,320,105 | $12,473,156 | $59,641,384 | +159.1% |
| 18 | Harassment / Stalking | $27,707,167 | $10,611,223 | $9,677,332 | +161.1% |
| 19 | IPR / Copyright / Counterfeit | $26,667,006 | $8,715,512 | $7,555,329 | +206.0% |
| 20 | Overpayment Scams | $22,898,075 | $21,452,521 | $27,955,195 | +6.7% |
| 21 | Malware | $19,370,572 | $1,365,945 | $1,213,317 | +1318.1% |
| 22 | SIM Swap | $17,366,758 | $25,983,946 | $48,798,103 | -33.2% |
| 23 | Botnet | $13,859,049 | $8,860,202 | $22,422,708 | +56.4% |
| 24 | Threats of Violence | $9,509,532 | $1,842,186 | $13,531,178 | +416.2% |
| 25 | Charity Scams | $7,907,609 | — | — | NEW |
Source: FBI IC3 Annual Reports 2023–2025. “Other” category ($512M in 2025) excluded. Charity was new in 2025.
đź“Š Cross-Cutting Descriptors (FBI IC3, 2025):
- Cryptocurrency: $11.4 billion across 181,565 complaints — up 22% from $9.3B in 2024
- AI-Related: $893 million across 22,364 complaints — first year tracked
3. Deep Dive: Analysis of Each Major Scam
Investment Fraud & Pig Butchering — $8.65 Billion
Three years running, investment fraud sits at the top of the FBI’s chart — and the gap keeps widening. In 2025 alone, 72,984 complaints added up to $8.65 billion. That’s more than the next two scam categories combined. Not close.
Most of that money vanishes through what the industry calls “pig butchering” — sha zhu pan in Mandarin. The playbook is disarmingly simple: a stranger reaches out on a dating app, LinkedIn, or even a wrong-number text. Weeks of friendly conversation follow. Eventually they suggest a “can’t-miss” crypto trading platform. The victim watches fabricated returns pile up, sinks in more cash, and one day the dashboard goes dark.
The trajectory speaks for itself: $4.57B → $6.57B → $8.65B. An 89% jump over two years. Crypto accounted for 71% of those losses — roughly $7.2 billion routed through wallets that are next to impossible to claw back.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) — $3.05 Billion
BEC doesn’t make headlines the way romance scams do, but dollar for dollar it’s the most devastating per incident. A scammer spoofs an executive’s email, sends a routine-looking wire-transfer request to someone in accounts payable, and the money’s gone before anyone questions it. Only 24,768 complaints were filed in 2025 — yet the average hit landed north of $123,000.
Look at the three-year line: $2.95B → $2.77B → $3.05B. Steady, massive, and almost boring in its consistency. That’s $8.77 billion drained from American businesses over thirty-six months. The emergence of AI-generated prose — grammatically flawless, tone-matched to the spoofed sender — has made these emails nearly undetectable.
Tech / Customer Support Scams — $2.13 Billion
Your screen freezes. A pop-up warns you’ve been “compromised.” A phone number flashes — call now or risk losing everything. It’s fake, of course, but the panic feels real. Scammers posing as Microsoft, Apple, or Amazon support reps have more than doubled their take in two years. One particularly cruel variant — the “gold courier” scheme — talks elderly victims into converting their savings into physical gold bars, then dispatches an actual courier to their doorstep. In 2024, a mere 525 of those complaints accounted for $219 million. Do the math: $417,000 per victim.
Two-year arc: $925M → $1.46B → $2.13B. That’s a 131% climb. Seniors bore the brunt — adults 60 and older made up over 58% of total tech-support losses.
Confidence / Romance Scams — $929 Million
The cruelty of romance scams is hard to overstate. Victims don’t just lose money — they lose trust in their own judgment. A scammer builds what feels like a genuine relationship over weeks, sometimes months, then invents emergencies that require cash. According to the BBB, the median loss is $6,099 — the highest of any scam category they track. What’s changed recently is the toolbox: AI-generated profile photos that don’t appear in reverse-image searches, voice cloning that passes a phone call, even real-time deepfake video.
The numbers: $653M → $672M → $929M. A 42% rise, and almost certainly an undercount given how reluctant victims are to come forward.
Government Impersonation — $798 Million
“This is the IRS. There is a warrant for your arrest.” That single sentence — delivered by robocall, spoofed caller ID and all — helped scammers extract $798 million in 2025. That’s nearly double the $406M logged the year before. SSA impersonators telling people their Social Security numbers have been “suspended” make up the rest. Fear is the product, and business is booming.
Employment / Job Scams — $363 Million
This one blindsided us. In 2023, employment scam losses totaled $70 million — bad, but not a headliner. By 2025 the number hit $363 million. That’s a 417% spike. The mechanism? Fake remote-work listings on LinkedIn and Indeed, bogus recruitment emails, and a newer breed called “task scams” — victims get paid small amounts for simple online tasks, build confidence, and then get asked to “invest” to unlock higher-paying work. By the time they realize the platform is fake, thousands are gone.
Phishing / Spoofing — $216 Million
By sheer complaint volume, phishing dwarfs everything else — 191,561 reports in 2025. Individual losses tend to be small, which is why analysts sometimes dismiss it. That’s a mistake. Phishing is the gateway drug of cybercrime: one stolen password can cascade into a BEC wire transfer, a drained bank account, or a full-blown identity theft case. And the dollar damage is catching up fast — $19M in 2023, $70M in 2024, $216M in 2025. A tenfold increase in twenty-four months, fueled by AI tools that churn out flawless phishing messages at scale.
Other Notable Scams
A quick sweep through the rest of the list: Personal Data Breach ($1.31B) climbed 76% in two years — breaches are constant background noise at this point. Non-Payment/Non-Delivery ($503M) covers the Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp fraud most people have encountered at least once. Real Estate Fraud ($275M) hits hardest during closing — a spoofed wire instruction redirects a down payment, and the buyer’s savings vanish. Up 59%. Lottery/Sweepstakes ($194M) nearly doubled year over year. Sextortion ($122M) is migrating toward teenagers, now often using AI-generated images. Ransomware ($32M reported) is almost certainly understated by an order of magnitude; the FBI identified 63 new variants this year. Malware ($19M) posted a staggering 1,318% increase. And SIM Swap ($17M) actually declined — one of the few bright spots, thanks to carrier-level protections finally kicking in.
4. Scam Losses by State: All 50 States + D.C. Ranked (2025)
Geography matters more than most people realize. A retiree in Nevada faces a very different threat landscape than a college student in Iowa. Below: every state and D.C., ranked by what their residents reported losing to the FBI’s IC3 in 2025.
| # | State | 2025 Losses | 2024 Losses | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $3,674,716,305 | $2,539,041,635 | +44.7% |
| 2 | Texas | $1,825,636,181 | $1,351,598,183 | +35.1% |
| 3 | Florida | $1,596,138,595 | $1,071,909,632 | +48.9% |
| 4 | New York | $1,226,307,877 | $903,975,003 | +35.7% |
| 5 | New Jersey | $660,411,901 | $434,856,424 | +51.9% |
| 6 | Arizona | $630,700,609 | $392,441,717 | +60.7% |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | $537,787,231 | $400,082,312 | +34.4% |
| 8 | Illinois | $535,255,201 | $479,054,271 | +11.7% |
| 9 | Georgia | $534,581,965 | $420,454,472 | +27.1% |
| 10 | Virginia | $476,120,025 | $317,406,595 | +50.0% |
| 11 | Washington | $458,165,375 | $368,203,209 | +24.4% |
| 12 | North Carolina | $431,561,716 | $324,287,947 | +33.1% |
| 13 | Ohio | $421,289,526 | $278,038,028 | +51.5% |
| 14 | Massachusetts | $410,924,066 | $338,872,378 | +21.3% |
| 15 | Maryland | $390,242,821 | $238,976,904 | +63.3% |
| 16 | Michigan | $381,068,131 | $241,737,979 | +57.6% |
| 17 | Colorado | $355,049,719 | $243,517,403 | +45.8% |
| 18 | Nevada | $302,235,247 | $268,769,310 | +12.5% |
| 19 | Tennessee | $269,214,519 | $190,271,310 | +41.5% |
| 20 | South Carolina | $264,083,026 | $146,468,765 | +80.3% |
| 21 | Minnesota | $248,892,986 | $203,352,530 | +22.4% |
| 22 | Missouri | $233,933,401 | $183,751,987 | +27.3% |
| 23 | Indiana | $233,016,771 | $125,093,323 | +86.3% |
| 24 | Connecticut | $219,500,212 | $143,884,002 | +52.6% |
| 25 | Utah | $195,417,205 | $129,414,310 | +51.0% |
| 26 | Wisconsin | $194,227,722 | $169,942,495 | +14.3% |
| 27 | Oregon | $193,196,479 | $144,160,344 | +34.0% |
| 28 | Alabama | $167,212,658 | $103,771,880 | +61.1% |
| 29 | Kansas | $147,337,101 | $80,300,908 | +83.5% |
| 30 | Oklahoma | $131,921,776 | $113,724,886 | +16.0% |
| 31 | Kentucky | $119,685,861 | $73,919,940 | +61.9% |
| 32 | Hawaii | $106,447,375 | $55,180,901 | +92.9% |
| 33 | Louisiana | $105,440,238 | $87,411,457 | +20.6% |
| 34 | Arkansas | $102,541,947 | $51,714,039 | +98.3% |
| 35 | District of Columbia | $97,368,097 | $291,531,458 | -66.6% |
| 36 | Iowa | $95,520,131 | $72,860,333 | +31.1% |
| 37 | West Virginia | $92,648,544 | $24,196,661 | +282.9% |
| 38 | Idaho | $88,725,284 | $63,035,342 | +40.8% |
| 39 | New Mexico | $85,571,285 | $76,621,670 | +11.7% |
| 40 | Mississippi | $77,360,761 | $65,613,936 | +17.9% |
| 41 | Rhode Island | $71,960,439 | $23,597,036 | +205.0% |
| 42 | Nebraska | $71,844,724 | $46,730,894 | +53.7% |
| 43 | Delaware | $62,012,494 | $37,611,598 | +64.9% |
| 44 | New Hampshire | $59,283,023 | $52,811,455 | +12.3% |
| 45 | Maine | $56,536,020 | $31,455,797 | +79.7% |
| 46 | Montana | $53,192,859 | $31,603,407 | +68.3% |
| 47 | South Dakota | $51,452,806 | $24,957,446 | +106.2% |
| 48 | Alaska | $39,972,438 | $26,296,803 | +52.0% |
| 49 | North Dakota | $37,865,442 | $21,831,953 | +73.4% |
| 50 | Vermont | $26,567,033 | $11,285,112 | +135.4% |
| 51 | Wyoming | $25,826,205 | $43,502,744 | -40.6% |
Source: FBI IC3 Annual Reports 2024 and 2025. Territories excluded from ranking but included in national totals.
🔑 Key Finding
5. States Ranked by Losses Per Capita (Per 100KÂ Residents)
Total dollars naturally skew toward big states. Adjusting for population flips the script — suddenly states like Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii climb near the top, and the concentration of damage per person becomes a lot harder to ignore.
| # | State | 2025 / 100K | 2024 / 100K | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $14,037,165 | $41,513,914 | -66.2% |
| 2 | California | $9,337,282 | $6,439,159 | +45.0% |
| 3 | Nevada | $9,208,347 | $8,225,617 | +11.9% |
| 4 | Arizona | $8,272,766 | $5,175,704 | +59.8% |
| 5 | Hawaii | $7,429,222 | $3,815,721 | +94.7% |
| 6 | New Jersey | $6,916,601 | $4,577,026 | +51.1% |
| 7 | Florida | $6,802,930 | $4,586,256 | +48.3% |
| 8 | Rhode Island | $6,456,625 | $2,121,448 | +204.3% |
| 9 | Maryland | $6,228,591 | $3,815,560 | +63.2% |
| 10 | New York | $6,130,795 | $4,550,077 | +34.7% |
| 11 | Connecticut | $5,950,941 | $3,915,137 | +52.0% |
| 12 | Colorado | $5,905,133 | $4,087,582 | +44.5% |
| 13 | Delaware | $5,850,500 | $3,575,529 | +63.6% |
| 14 | Texas | $5,757,321 | $4,319,470 | +33.3% |
| 15 | Massachusetts | $5,743,909 | $4,748,658 | +21.0% |
| 16 | Washington | $5,726,337 | $4,626,726 | +23.8% |
| 17 | Utah | $5,521,970 | $3,693,739 | +49.5% |
| 18 | South Dakota | $5,502,421 | $2,699,068 | +103.9% |
| 19 | Alaska | $5,421,682 | $3,552,983 | +52.6% |
| 20 | Virginia | $5,361,647 | $3,602,310 | +48.8% |
| 21 | West Virginia | $5,245,800 | $1,367,059 | +283.7% |
| 22 | Kansas | $4,948,815 | $2,703,183 | +83.1% |
| 23 | South Carolina | $4,740,934 | $2,673,358 | +77.3% |
| 24 | North Dakota | $4,736,982 | $2,740,752 | +72.8% |
| 25 | Georgia | $4,729,664 | $3,760,478 | +25.8% |
| 26 | Montana | $4,646,906 | $2,778,974 | +67.2% |
| 27 | Oregon | $4,520,711 | $3,374,247 | +34.0% |
| 28 | Wyoming | $4,386,594 | $7,403,235 | -40.7% |
| 29 | Idaho | $4,371,279 | $3,149,218 | +38.8% |
| 30 | Minnesota | $4,268,880 | $3,510,223 | +21.6% |
| 31 | Illinois | $4,208,265 | $3,769,066 | +11.7% |
| 32 | New Hampshire | $4,188,601 | $3,748,066 | +11.8% |
| 33 | Vermont | $4,121,073 | $1,740,206 | +136.8% |
| 34 | Pennsylvania | $4,117,999 | $3,059,025 | +34.6% |
| 35 | New Mexico | $4,025,941 | $3,596,829 | +11.9% |
| 36 | Maine | $3,995,834 | $2,238,828 | +78.5% |
| 37 | North Carolina | $3,853,929 | $2,935,789 | +31.3% |
| 38 | Michigan | $3,762,564 | $2,383,896 | +57.8% |
| 39 | Missouri | $3,730,673 | $2,942,166 | +26.8% |
| 40 | Tennessee | $3,680,270 | $2,632,511 | +39.8% |
| 41 | Nebraska | $3,560,184 | $2,330,178 | +52.8% |
| 42 | Ohio | $3,540,096 | $2,339,737 | +51.3% |
| 43 | Indiana | $3,341,541 | $1,806,591 | +85.0% |
| 44 | Arkansas | $3,292,097 | $1,674,485 | +96.6% |
| 45 | Wisconsin | $3,251,878 | $2,850,918 | +14.1% |
| 46 | Alabama | $3,219,908 | $2,011,980 | +60.0% |
| 47 | Oklahoma | $3,199,432 | $2,776,898 | +15.2% |
| 48 | Iowa | $2,949,621 | $2,247,743 | +31.2% |
| 49 | Mississippi | $2,618,706 | $2,229,457 | +17.5% |
| 50 | Kentucky | $2,597,990 | $1,611,028 | +61.3% |
| 51 | Louisiana | $2,283,151 | $1,901,183 | +20.1% |
Source: FBI IC3 Annual Reports 2024 and 2025, per-capita figures use U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
🏛️ Why D.C. ranks #1 per capita
6. Top 50 Most-Scammed Metro Areas in America
This is the table we suspect local reporters will find most useful. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network tracks fraud complaints by metro area — here are the 50 with the highest per-capita report rates in 2024, the latest year available.
| # | Metropolitan Area | State |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | FL |
| 2 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell | GA |
| 3 | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | TX |
| 4 | Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas | NV |
| 5 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | FL |
| 6 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | CA |
| 7 | Baton Rouge | LA |
| 8 | Killeen-Temple | TX |
| 9 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | FL |
| 10 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | TX |
| 11 | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | FL |
| 12 | Macon-Bibb County | GA |
| 13 | Lakeland-Winter Haven | FL |
| 14 | Jacksonville | FL |
| 15 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler | AZ |
| 16 | San Antonio-New Braunfels | TX |
| 17 | Odessa | TX |
| 18 | Memphis | TN |
| 19 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson | MD |
| 20 | Savannah | GA |
| 21 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria | DC-VA-MD |
| 22 | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | NC-SC |
| 23 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood | CO |
| 24 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario | CA |
| 25 | New York-Newark-Jersey City | NY-NJ |
| 26 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | PA-NJ-DE |
| 27 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | IL-IN-WI |
| 28 | New Orleans-Metairie | LA |
| 29 | Montgomery | AL |
| 30 | Birmingham-Hoover | AL |
| 31 | Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach | FL |
| 32 | Columbus | GA-AL |
| 33 | Augusta-Richmond County | GA-SC |
| 34 | Raleigh-Cary | NC |
| 35 | Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin | TN |
| 36 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | WA |
| 37 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn | MI |
| 38 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad | CA |
| 39 | Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown | TX |
| 40 | Tucson | AZ |
| 41 | Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News | VA-NC |
| 42 | San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley | CA |
| 43 | Columbus | OH |
| 44 | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | OR-WA |
| 45 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson | IN |
| 46 | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom | CA |
| 47 | Kansas City | MO-KS |
| 48 | St. Louis | MO-IL |
| 49 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton | MA-NH |
| 50 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | MN-WI |
Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024. Rankings based on fraud reports per 100,000 population.
🏙️ Regional Patterns
- Florida is overrepresented: 7 of the top 50 metros sit in the Sunshine State, led by Miami at #1, Orlando at #5, and Tampa at #9.
- Texas keeps pace: 6 metros — Houston (#3), Killeen (#8), Dallas (#10), San Antonio (#16), Odessa (#17), Austin (#39).
- Georgia punches above its weight: 5 metros crack the list — Atlanta (#2), Macon (#12), Savannah (#20), Columbus (#32), Augusta (#33).
- Military towns stand out: Killeen (#8) is home to Fort Cavazos; Odessa (#17) has a transient oil-field workforce. Both conditions seem to attract scammers.
7. Who’s Getting Scammed? Age & Demographics
FBI IC3 Complaints & Losses by Age Group (2025)
| Age | Complaints | Losses | Avg Loss | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 31,254 | $67.1M | $2,147 | 0.3% |
| 20–29 | 112,069 | $563.1M | $5,025 | 2.7% |
| 30–39 | 153,293 | $1.7B | $11,091 | 8.1% |
| 40–49 | 167,066 | $2.96B | $17,700 | 14.2% |
| 50–59 | 124,820 | $3.7B | $29,643 | 17.7% |
| 60+ | 201,266 | $7.75B | $38,500 | 37.1% |
⚠️ Elder Fraud Crisis
Here’s the twist the FTC flagged: people in their twenties are actually more likely to report a loss — 44% of their fraud reports involve money out the door, compared with just 24% for people in their seventies. But when an older adult does get taken, the damage is catastrophic. Median loss for 80+ is $1,650. For under-20s, it’s $189. Age doesn’t make you more gullible — it makes you a bigger target.
8. The AI Scam Explosion
If there’s one trend in this entire report that keeps fraud analysts up at night, it’s this one.
Numbers worth sitting with:
- Voice cloning: Just 3 seconds of audio creates an 85% voice match. 1 in 4 adults have experienced an AI voice scam, and 77% of those targeted lost money (McAfee).
- Deepfake videos: Human accuracy in identifying high-quality deepfakes is just 24.5%. One deepfake video call cost engineering firm Arup $25.6 million.
- AI phishing: AI-generated phishing emails achieve click-through rates 4Ă— higher than human-crafted messages.
- Scale: Americans receive an average of 14 scam messages daily and encounter 3 deepfakes per day (McAfee).
- Time cost: Americans spend 114 hours per year — nearly 3 full work weeks — verifying whether messages are real or scams.
- “Indistinguishable threshold” crossed: As of late 2025, voice cloning has crossed the point where human listeners can no longer reliably distinguish cloned voices from real ones.
🌍 The Global Picture
9. How to Protect Yourself
🔍 Verify Before You Trust
- Verify identities independently. If someone contacts you claiming to be from your bank, the IRS, or a company — hang up and call the official number yourself.
- Reverse image search profile photos from dating sites, social media, or business contacts. Tools like Social Catfish can verify if someone is who they claim to be.
- Insist on live video calls before sending money to anyone you’ve met online.
- Verify investment platforms through SEC.gov and FINRA BrokerCheck before investing.
đź’° Protect Your Money
- Never send cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or gift cards based on unsolicited requests — these are nearly impossible to recover.
- Be suspicious of “urgent” financial requests. Scammers manufacture time pressure to bypass your judgment.
- Set up bank alerts for large transactions and unusual activity.
🤖 AI-Era Precautions
- Establish a family code word for emergency calls — AI can clone voices from social media videos.
- Don’t trust caller ID. Scammers spoof any phone number.
- Be skeptical of too-polished messages. AI-generated scam messages have perfect grammar.
- Limit public voice/video content that could be used for deepfake creation.
đź“ž Report Scams
- FBI IC3: ic3.gov
- FTC: reportfraud.ftc.gov
- BBB Scam Tracker: bbb.org/scamtracker
- ScamComplaints.org: Report here
10. Methodology & Sources
About This Report
The Social Catfish research team compiled this report from publicly released federal data and peer-reviewed fraud research. Every number here reflects reported losses only. Given the FBI’s own estimate that just 2–6% of victims file complaints, actual annual fraud costs in the U.S. likely land somewhere north of $195 billion.
Primary Sources
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — Annual Reports 2023, 2024, 2025
- FTC Consumer Sentinel Network — Data Books 2023–2024 & 2025 press releases
- BBB Scam Tracker — 2024 Annual Risk Report
- GASA Global State of Scams Report 2025 — 46,000 respondents, 42 countries
- McAfee State of the Scamiverse Report 2026 — 7,500 consumer survey
- Deloitte Center for Financial Services — AI fraud loss projections
Notes on Data
- FBI IC3 and FTC use different methodologies. Their figures should not be added together.
- “Cryptocurrency” in IC3 data is a cross-cutting descriptor, not a standalone category.
- Metro-area rankings use FTC data (IC3 does not publish metro-level breakdowns).
- State rankings use FBI IC3 data representing complaints filed by victims.
Think you’re talking to a scammer?
Verify their identity before it’s too late.
© 2026 Social Catfish · socialcatfish.com · Data sourced from public government reports. This report may be cited with attribution.