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- Derek Weston via Fortune | FORTUNE
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US scam losses hit record $15.9 billion as victims face mounting fees and taxes
ReUS scam losses hit record $15.9 billion as victims face mounting fees and taxes
Americans reported a record $15.9 billion in scam losses last year, a 25% increase from 2024, with real losses estimated near $200 billion annually. Victims describe stigma, tax bills, and little help from law enforcement.
Americans reported a record $15.9 billion in losses to scams last year, a 25% jump from 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The figure is likely a massive undercount, with the FTC estimating real losses in 2024 approached $200 billion — about $550 million every day in the United States alone.
The surge is driven by advances in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, which allow scammers to operate at unprecedented scale and sophistication, according to an investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE. AI enables fraudsters to reach more targets with convincing messages, while cryptocurrency offers a form of digital cash that is difficult to trace to its real owners.
New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 98% of Americans suspect they have been targeted by scammers, many on a daily basis. Three in 10 said they have personally lost money or information to scams.
The investigation included interviews with 58 U.S. victims aged 32 to 90, spanning all races and income levels. Losses ranged from several thousand dollars to $4 million per person. Victims included doctors, IT professionals, academics with advanced degrees, and people struggling to make ends meet.
Many victims said the aftermath of a scam was worse than the crime itself. They described ridicule and stigma from friends and family, pressure from banks and lenders, unexpected tax bills, dismissive law enforcement, and neglect from government agencies they expected to protect them.
«What happens after the scam might even be worse than the scam itself,» said Erin West, a former prosecutor and founder of Operation Shamrock, a nonprofit supporting online scam victims. «It's a travesty.»
One victim, a widower identified only as Simon, lost $800,000 to a woman he met online while grieving his wife of 43 years. He later discovered the profile was fake and the money had been traced to a scam compound in Myanmar. Simon said he was then stuck repaying $185,000 he had borrowed and faced tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on withdrawn funds. When he reported the crime to local police and the FBI, he said nothing came of it. He was later contacted by another scammer offering to connect him with the Secret Service in exchange for more money.
«What a fool I was,» Simon said. He asked not to be identified by his full name because he is too ashamed to tell most of his family about the crime. Local police and the FBI declined to comment on his case.
Several victims said they contemplated suicide, and two attempted it. Only one person interviewed recovered any money, winning a rare settlement from her bank rather than from her scammer.
Victims often owe additional money through bank fees and tax bills. The IRS frequently demands that retirees pay taxes on funds withdrawn from tax-deferred accounts, even when those funds were stolen. A provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent in 2025, eliminated deductions for personal losses from many common scams, meaning victims can owe taxes after their money was taken.
Retired nurse Susan Bivins said she was tricked into draining her retirement accounts and sending more than $200,000 to someone pretending to be a federal agent. After the FBI and local police did not help, she received an $80,000 tax bill from the IRS. «I wanted to drive off a cliff,» she said. «I didn't know how I was going to live.» Bivins sold her home and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment, where she continues paying off the tax debt.
The investigation found that while the Trump administration and Congress are exploring new options, victims still have little recourse. The U.S. lags behind other countries in holding financial institutions and social media companies responsible for scam activity and in regulating cryptocurrency, the report found.
