American Consumers Lost $12.5 Billion to Fraud in 2024
according to Federal Trade Commission data The U.S. consumer report released on Monday said fraud was lost in 2024, up 25% from the previous year.
The FTC received 2.6 million fraud reports last year, which is relatively close to 2023 reports, but the percentage of people who lost due to scams and other types of fraud has increased 11% this year. FTC data shows that in 2024, 38% reported losses from scams and other types of fraud, while 27% reported the same losses in 2023.
While these figures may seem surprising, experts say they may only account for a small percentage of the actual situation of fraud and loss, as most financial fraud continues to be unreported. Most victims are too ashamed to stand up or just feel that there will be no benefit in doing so.
“The data we release today shows that the tactics of the fraudsters are evolving,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC Consumer Protection Agency, said in a statement.
Last year, the money lost by investment scams was 24% to $5.7 billion, the largest fraud caused by the category and significantly outweighed the impostor scams, causing more than $2.9 billion.
A large portion of the loss of impostor scams involves government impostor scams, where cybercriminals will mistakenly claim to be representatives like government agencies IRS,,,,, FEMA or the local police station. These losses jumped 28% to $789 million.
The FTC added that it continues to see an increase in job and employment scams. Losses related to losses have increased from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024.
