By the numbers

Americans Reported Losing $15.9 Billion to Scams Last Year. Half of It Went to One Type of Fraud

New federal figures show reported fraud losses have grown every year since 2020 — and the real total is likely far higher.

By Marc Colomé Serra, Editor. Published October 8, 2026. Every figure is linked to its source below.

Every year, millions of Americans tell the federal government that someone tricked them out of their money. In 2025, those reports added up to a figure that would have seemed absurd a few years ago: $15.9 billion.

The number comes from the Federal Trade Commission, which shared it in testimony before the congressional Joint Economic Committee on March 25, 2026. It is drawn from the agency's Consumer Sentinel Network, a database that collects complaints from consumers and from partner organizations.

A number that keeps climbing

This is not a one-year spike. According to the FTC, reported losses passed $6 billion in 2021, approached $9 billion in 2022 and topped $10 billion in 2023. The agency says reported losses have risen every year for six years and are up by close to 430% since 2020.

And those are only the cases people report. The FTC itself has estimated that the true cost of fraud to Americans in 2024 may have reached as much as $195.9 billion, because most victims never file a complaint.

The fraud that takes the most money

Investment scams are the most expensive by far. They usually start with a stranger — on social media, a dating app or a "wrong number" text — who slowly builds trust and then steers the victim toward a fake trading platform or cryptocurrency opportunity. The profits shown on screen look real. The money is gone.

The most common fraud is different: impostor scams. For the sixth year running, people who pretend to be a bank, a government agency, a relative or a well-known company generated the most reports — more than one million in 2025, with $3.5 billion in losses.

Where the scammers find people

The FTC's testimony singles out social media as a major entry point: in fiscal year 2025, consumers reported more than $2 billion in losses when the scam began on a social platform.

Is anyone getting money back?

Some. In fiscal year 2025 the FTC brought 40 law enforcement actions against fraud schemes — from fake business opportunities to illegal robocalls and tech-support cons — and says its cases secured more than $1.8 billion in relief for consumers. That is real money, but it is a fraction of what was lost.