Scam statistics
What the FTC, the FBI and published research say about fraud, with the source under every figure.
These are the only 2026 figures published so far. APWG counts the phishing attacks reported to it. Figures for the rest of the year are not out yet.
The FBI counted $20.9B lost to internet crime in 2025 across 1,008,597 complaints, up 26% on 2024. The FTC counted $15.9B lost to fraud. The two agencies use different reporting forms, so their totals differ. Phishing accounted for 191,561 complaints and $215.8M. Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report.
Nearly one in three fraud reports to the FTC in 2025 was an imposter scam, where someone pretends to be a bank, a government agency, a delivery firm or a grandchild. People reported losing $3.5B to them. Source: FTC, June 2026.
Gallup surveyed people rather than counting reports, and put 2025 losses at $68B, about $186M a day, with 15 million adults scammed. This is a survey estimate and not a reported total, which is why it is more than three times the FBI number. Source: Gallup, June 2026.
Reported U.S. fraud losses nearly tripled in four years, from $5.8B in 2021 to $15.9B in 2025. Source: FTC press releases, 2021-2026.
People in their twenties lose money to fraud almost twice as often as people in their seventies, 44% of reports vs 24%. Older people lose more each time, with a median loss of $1,000 vs $417. Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book 2024.
Bank transfers appear in 9.9% of fraud reports but account for 38.4% of the dollars lost. Crypto payments show the same pattern. Source: FTC Data Book 2024, payment methods.
Fake invoices and payroll changes sent by email cost a reported $3.0B in 2025, up from $263M a decade ago. The figure has risen across eleven years of IC3 annual reports. Source: FBI IC3 Internet Crime Reports, 2015 to 2025.
A voice clone can reach an 85% match from a three-second sample, which is enough for a fake "grandkid in trouble" call. Deepfake fraud attempts are up over 2,000%. Sources: McAfee voice-cloning research; Signicat.
Only about 4.8% of mass-market fraud victims ever report it to the BBB or a government agency. The figures on this page only count the people who reported. Source: Anderson, FTC staff research (SSRN 3852323).
Primary sources: APWG Phishing Activity Trends, Q2 2026 · FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report · FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book · FBI IC3 annual reports · Anderson (2021), SSRN
Public advisories, newest first, each linked to the body that issued it.