Customers misplaced greater than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, which represents a 25% improve over the prior 12 months, in response to newly launched Federal Commerce Fee knowledge.
The FTC stated whereas the variety of fraud experiences remained steady at about 2.6 million, the proportion of people that reported dropping cash to a fraud or rip-off elevated from 27% in 2023 to 38% in 2024.
Customers reported dropping extra money to funding scams—$5.7 billion—than every other class in 2024. That quantity represents a 24% improve over 2023. The second highest reported loss quantity got here from imposter scams, with $2.95 billion reported misplaced. In 2024, customers reported dropping extra money to scams the place they paid with financial institution transfers or cryptocurrency than all different cost strategies mixed.
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Client Safety, stated the data exhibits that “scammers’ techniques are always evolving.”
Probably the most generally reported rip-off class was imposter scams. Losses to authorities imposter scams particularly elevated $171 million from 2023 to a complete of $789 million in 2024.
On-line procuring points have been the second mostly reported within the fraud class. This was adopted by enterprise and job alternatives, the place reported losses totaled $750.6 million—up practically $250 million from 2023. The opposite most reported classes of fraud have been investment-related experiences and web providers.
Inside enterprise and job alternatives, the subcategory job and employment company scams noticed the variety of experiences triple from 2020 to 2024, and the quantity customers reported dropping to those scams jumped from $90 million to $501 million in that point.
For the second consecutive 12 months, electronic mail was the commonest approach that buyers reported being contacted by scammers. Telephone calls have been the second mostly reported contact methodology for fraud in 2024, adopted by textual content messages.
The FTC makes use of the experiences as the place to begin for a lot of of its regulation enforcement investigations, and the company additionally shares these experiences with federal, state, and native regulation enforcement professionals throughout the nation. FTC doesn’t itself intervene in particular person complaints.
Supply: FTC
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