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Fraud, Identity Theft, and Scam Reports Statistics / Report

Key Takeaways

  • In 2024, consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud to the FTC, up 25% from the year before. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • The FTC received 2.6 million fraud reports in 2024, while the broader Consumer Sentinel Network received 6.5 million total consumer reports across fraud, identity theft, and other consumer protection categories. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Investment scams caused the highest reported consumer losses in 2024 at $5.7 billion, followed by imposter scams at $2.95 billion. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Older adults continue to face outsized harm: AARP reported that 41% of adults age 50 and older say they have lost money to fraud, versus 35% of adults ages 18 to 49. (AARP)
  • Javelin reports consumers lost $27.2 billion to identity fraud in 2024, a 19% increase from the prior year. (javelinstrategy.com)
  • The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report says reported cyber-enabled crime losses surpassed $20 billion in 2025.
  • Scams starting with text messages are growing fast: the FTC says consumers reported $470 million in text scam losses in 2024, more than five times the 2020 figure. (Federal Trade Commission)

CORE STATISTICS

TRENDS & INSIGHTS

The clearest pattern in the latest data is that losses are rising faster than report volume. FTC data shows fraud reports stayed roughly stable in 2024, but the share of people who actually lost money jumped sharply, which means scams are becoming more effective, more costly, or both. (Federal Trade Commission)

Another major trend is the growing financial impact of high-dollar scams. Investment scams led all fraud categories in reported losses in 2024, and the FTC also found that consumers reported losing more through bank transfers and cryptocurrency than through all other payment methods combined. (Federal Trade Commission)

Identity fraud is also becoming more expensive. Javelin says 2024 identity fraud losses rose to $27.2 billion, and account takeover remains one of the most damaging forms because it hits existing financial, email, and online accounts people already rely on. (javelinstrategy.com)

Contact methods are shifting too. The FTC says email was the most commonly reported scam contact channel in 2024, followed by phone calls and then text messages. At the same time, text scam losses surged to $470 million, showing that even if texts are not always the top contact method, they are becoming increasingly dangerous. (Federal Trade Commission)

REAL-WORLD CONTEXT

For everyday adults, these numbers mean scams are no longer rare or niche. They show up in ordinary places: inboxes, text messages, phone calls, social media, fake delivery alerts, fake fraud warnings, and impersonation messages that look routine at first glance. The risk is not only “getting hacked.” It is losing money, losing access to accounts, or having personal information reused for identity fraud. (Federal Trade Commission)

The data also suggests that people are dealing with blended threats. A scam might begin with a fake text, move to a phone call, and end with a transfer from a bank account or crypto wallet. That is one reason the losses keep climbing even when raw report counts do not increase at the same pace. This is an inference based on the FTC’s payment-method data and Javelin’s description of hybrid fraud tactics. (Federal Trade Commission)

WHO IS MOST AT RISK

  • Adults 50 and older appear especially vulnerable to financial harm. AARP found 41% of adults age 50+ say they have lost money to fraud. (AARP)
  • The FTC says adults 60 and older reported total fraud losses rising from about $600 million in 2020 to about $2.4 billion in 2024. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Older adults report higher median losses than younger adults, and people 80 and over had median reported losses above $1,600 in 2024. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • The FBI’s 2024 annual report said people over age 60 submitted the most complaints and suffered the most losses among age groups. (Internet Crime Complaint Center)
  • People dealing with investment opportunities, impersonation contacts, account access issues, or unexpected payment requests face particularly high risk because those patterns align with the top loss categories in current federal data. (Federal Trade Commission)

QUICK CHECKLIST (what this means)

  • Be more suspicious of unexpected messages, even when they look routine.
  • Treat investment pitches, account alerts, and impersonation claims as high-risk.
  • Do not assume familiar channels like email and text are safe.
  • Take account takeover seriously, not just “new account” identity theft.
  • Older adults and families helping older relatives should pay special attention to large-transfer scams.
  • The biggest losses often happen when urgency pushes someone to act before verifying. This is an inference supported by the dominance of imposter, investment, and text-based scams in recent reports. (Federal Trade Commission)

HOW TO STAY PROTECTED

  • Pause before paying. Never send money, crypto, gift cards, or bank transfers because of pressure in a call, text, or email. FTC data shows these payment methods are heavily tied to major fraud losses. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Verify independently. If a text or email says there is a package issue, fraud alert, toll problem, or account problem, contact the company using a phone number or website you already know is real. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Protect account access. Use strong passwords, unique passwords, and multi-factor authentication where possible to reduce account takeover risk. Javelin’s data shows takeover fraud is one of the costliest forms of identity crime. (javelinstrategy.com)
  • Watch older family members closely. Recent FTC and FBI data show older adults often suffer the largest losses. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Report incidents quickly. Consumers can report identity theft through IdentityTheft.gov and general fraud through ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which helps with recovery steps and law enforcement visibility. (Federal Trade Commission)

CITABLE STATEMENTS

  • Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, according to the FTC. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Investment scams were the costliest fraud category in 2024, with $5.7 billion in reported losses. (Federal Trade Commission)
  • Javelin says consumers lost $27.2 billion to identity fraud in 2024, including nearly $16 billion from account takeover. (javelinstrategy.com)
  • AARP found that 41% of adults age 50 and older say they have lost money to fraud. (AARP)
  • The FBI says reported cyber-enabled crime losses surpassed $20 billion in 2025.

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