Consumers lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, which represents a 25% increase over the prior year, according to newly released Federal Trade Commission data.

The FTC said while the number of fraud reports remained stable at about 2.6 million, the percentage of people who reported losing money to a fraud or scam increased from 27% in 2023 to 38% in 2024.

Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams—$5.7 billion—than any other category in 2024. That amount represents a 24% increase over 2023. The second highest reported loss amount came from imposter scams, with $2.95 billion reported lost. In 2024, consumers reported losing more money to scams where they paid with bank transfers or cryptocurrency than all other payment methods combined.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the data shows that “scammers’ tactics are constantly evolving.”

The FTC received fraud reports from 2.6 million consumers last year, nearly the same amount as 2023. The most commonly reported scam category was imposter scams. Losses to government imposter scams in particular increased $171 million from 2023 to a total of $789 million in 2024.

Online shopping issues were the second most commonly reported in the fraud category. This was followed by business and job opportunities, where reported losses totaled $750.6 million—up nearly $250 million from 2023. The other most reported categories of fraud were investment-related reports and internet services.

Within business and job opportunities, the subcategory job and employment agency scams saw the number of reports triple from 2020 to 2024, and the amount consumers reported losing to these scams jumped from $90 million to $501 million in that time.

For the second consecutive year, email was the most common way that consumers reported being contacted by scammers. Phone calls were the second most commonly reported contact method for fraud in 2024, followed by text messages.

The FTC uses the reports as the starting point for many of its law enforcement investigations, and the agency also shares these reports with federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals across the country. FTC does not itself intervene in individual complaints.

Source: FTC