You’re not the only one getting voicemails about your car’s extended warranty.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), about 2.6 million people submitted reports on falling victim to fraud in 2024, totaling $12.5 billion in losses. That’s a big jump from $2.5 billion lost in 2023, when the FTC received roughly the same number of reports.
The most common way that people reported losing money was when they were contacted through social media, though the FTC does not break down which platforms are the biggest culprits.
When it comes to the scams themselves, the most common way that people lost money was through impostor scams, where bad actors pretend to be romantic interests, family members in distress, government entities, or technical support experts.
Some of these scams can get pretty extreme — one French woman was reportedly swindled out of $800,000 by someone pretending to be the actor Brad Pitt. But in less dramatic cases, scammers prey on people by creating a sense of anxiety and urgency, which can knock even the most vigilant people off guard.
The financial columnist for The Cut, Charlotte Cowles, wrote a viral essay last year about how she was scammed out of $50,000 in cash, which she handed to a stranger in a shoebox. Though her essay didn’t generate much pity from her readers, it showed how skilled criminals can fabricate crises that destabilize people enough to fork over their savings.
“I’m not a person who panics under pressure and falls for a conspiracy involving drug smuggling, money laundering, and CIA officers at my door,” Cowles wrote. “Until, suddenly, I was.”
Cowles is right, though, that the victims of scams aren’t always who you would expect. Elderly people who are less familiar with technology are often considered especially vulnerable to online scams, but the FTC says that people aged 20-29 lost money more often when reporting scams than people above the age of 70. When the elderly did lose money, though, they tended to lose more than other age groups.
Some types of scams have been popular for over a decade, while other kinds of scams are rising quickly.
The third most common kind of scam in 2024 were ones related to job and business opportunities, nearly tripling in number of reports between 2020 and 2024. While job and employment scams represented $90 million of losses in 2020, people reported $501 million lost last year.
Traditional bank transfers were the most common way that people lost money to scams, totaling around $2 billion, but cryptocurrency payments weren’t far behind at $1.4 billion.
These impostors may reach out to consumers via social media, phone call, email, or text. But as AI deepfake technology becomes more accessible, we may see more scams via phone take place in the future — scammers will be able to more closely mimic the voices of people’s loved ones, paving the way for more targeted attacks. So, when in doubt, you might want to call your grandson before believing a call from an unknown number that he’s in danger.