Americans reported a record $15.9 billion in losses last year to the Federal Trade Commission, a 25% increase from 2024. And such estimates are likely a massive undercount because most scam victims are too embarrassed to report their crimes.
The FTC estimates that real losses in 2024 were close to $200 billion; that’s $550 million every day just in the U.S.
The ballooning costs are fueled by huge advances in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. AI allows scammers to work at a previously unimaginable scale and level of sophistication, and cryptocurrency, often used in investment scams, is a form of digital cash that can be hard to trace to its real owners.
No one is immune, the AP/FRONTLINE investigation found. Ninety-eight percent of Americans suspect they have been targeted by scammers, many every day, according to a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three in 10 said they have personally lost money or information to scams.
AP/FRONTLINE interviewed 58 people in the United States who lost money to cyberscams, aged 32 to 90, across all races and income levels. They said they lost several thousand dollars to $4 million each and included doctors, IT professionals, academics with advanced degrees and people just trying to make ends meet.
When Simon’s wife of 43 years passed away, it felt a bit like he’d died too.
In his overwhelming grief, Simon sought companionship online, like so many other lonely widows and widowers. Almost immediately he met Emily. But over the next few months, Emily, who Simon realized too late was a fake, stole $800,000 from him.
And that was just the beginning.
Simon was stuck paying back $185,000 he had borrowed, and tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes on money he had withdrawn and lost. He tried to report the crime to his local police and the FBI, he said, but nothing came of it. Instead, he was contacted by yet another scammer — offering to connect him with the Secret Service to recoup his losses in exchange for even more money.
