US FTC: Consumers lost $15.9bn to fraud in 2025

Lois Greisman, associate director of the division of marketing practices at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, appeared before Congress to share how their “commitment to battling fraud is as strong as ever.” She went on to explore how out of the 30 million fraud reports dating from 2020 through 2025, three million were reported to the CSN in 2025.

Losses totalled $15.9 billion, “a substantial increase from the previous year when consumers submitted 2.6 million fraud reports and reported fraud losses of over $12 billion,” Greisman said. Further, she explained that while reported fraud losses have risen nearly 430% since 2020, there has also been a sharp increase in the number of consumers reporting large losses of $100,000 or more.

In addition to this, Greisman’s statement was a stark reminder that these figures are a fraction of American consumers’ actual losses since not every consumer who lost money to scams reported it to the FTC or to one of the FTC’s data sources. “When taking underreporting into account, the FTC has estimated that the overall cost of fraud to consumers for 2024 could be as high as $195.9 billion.”

While imposter scams remain the most frequently reported fraud, accounting for one million reports and $3.5 billion in losses, the top fraud by aggregate consumer losses - and approximately half of the total reported fraud losses in the year - is investment scams. Consumers reported over $7.9 billion in losses and an average individual loss of over $10,000 in 2025.

Funds were more likely to be sent to scammers through bank, cryptocurrency, or credit card payment. Alongside this, fraudsters contacted their victims by text message or social media.

Earlier this month, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing several federal agencies to “take measures to stop Transnational Criminal Organization (TCOs) from harming Americans through cybercrime, cyber-enabled fraud and extortion. Under this executive order, the National Coordination Center will create a specialized targeting cell to coordinate and deconflict all federal workstreams targeting TCOs.”

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