Americans lost over $10 billion to scammers in 2023, groundbreaking report shows

09 February 2024 , 21:05

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Scams were on the rise in 2023, with the year boasting the highest amount of revenue lost because of them in the US ever (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Scams are on the rise across the US, with the Federal Trade Commission releasing a shocking new report that states that consumers in the country lost over $10 billion total to fraud in 2023.

Those numbers have been on the rise, and this is the highest they've ever been, the commission stated. They're up 14% from 2022, and the highest category of lost revenues comes from investment scams, which account for $4.6 billion. That went up by about 21% since 2022, the report states.

After that, lost revenue resulted from imposter scams, with about $2.7 billion reported lost. Bank transfers and cryptocurrency combined, however, while not entirely scams, resulted in the highest loss of money overall in 2023.

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Texting was how most scammers messaged their victims in 2022, but in 2023, they tended to use email, the report states (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection Samuel Levine stated in a press release: "Digital tools are making it easier than ever to target hard-working Americans, and we see the effects of that in the data we're releasing today. The FTC is working hard to take action against those scams."

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While not the costliest of the scams, imposter scams saw the greatest spike in 2023, the FTC reported, noting that there were 2.6 million reports of fraud overall throughout the year, which was around the same as in 2022.

In an impersonator scam, a person calling or texting someone will attempt to impersonate a business, government official or even, in some cases, a relative, in attempts to get money from consumers. They'll make up stories about legal infarctions or other desperate events, including medical emergencies, to get people to send them money.

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An infographic breaks down some of the FTC's fraud statistics related to the revenue lost in 2023 (Federal Trade Commission)

A lot of elderly individuals seem to fall for scams like that. But there are also issues encountered in some online shopping spaces, with fraud reported. It has also been reported in online prizes, sweepstakes, lotteries, investment-related reports, businesses and job opportunity scams.

The report states that most of the scams were carried out via email, which is a new trend, the FTC reported. They were much more common over email than over text, which was 2022's highest scam medium. Phone calls took the cake for decades before that, and they were the second-highest scam medium in 2023, with texts coming in third.

The FTC maintains a Consumer Sentinel Network, which is a database that collects reports from consumers and also federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members and nonprofits, the press release stated. Over 20 states contribute data to the organization.

Some scams attempt to steal user data to sell it later (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sentinel reportedly received about 5.4 million reports in 2023 alone, which included the aforementioned 2.6 million in fraud reports and some identity thefts and other related complaints.

So, what is the FTC doing to address the issues that are afflicting millions of Americans every year? The press release included a list of things it did in 2023, which included what it called "the largest-ever crackdown on illegal telemarketing," a proposed ban on impersonator fraud, investment scheme crackdowns and ramping up detection for other, newer types of fraud.

Jeremiah Hassel