FTC says Americans lost $12.5B to scams last year — social media, AI, and crypto didn’t help

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 sen ... Read full article.