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Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The number of fraud reports stayed roughly level, but a larger share of people who reported fraud said they lost money: 38% in 2024, compared with 27% in 2023. These are losses reported to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, not a complete count of fraud losses across the United States.
What the FTC’s $12.5 billion figure measures
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network collects reports from consumers and receives them from law-enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members, and nonprofit organizations. In 2024, Sentinel received 6.5 million reports across fraud, identity theft, and other consumer issues. The $12.5 billion headline concerns the 2.6 million reports classified as fraud, not all 6.5 million reports. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 explains the network and its categories.
The Data Book is based on unverified consumer reports, not a survey of a representative sample of U.S. consumers. The figures therefore describe what people reported to Sentinel and its contributors; they are not verified counts of every incident or a measure of the total actual cost of fraud. Reporting patterns also depend on whether people contact the network or one of its contributors.
Why reported losses rose while fraud reports stayed level
The FTC recorded nearly the same number of fraud reports in 2024 as in 2023, but the share of those reports indicating a financial loss increased from 27% to 38%. That change helps explain how reported losses could rise 25% without a comparable jump in the number of reports. The figures do not establish why the share increased or show that every report represents a separate, verified incident.
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As the FTC put it in its March 2025 guidance on the top scams of 2024, “even though the number of fraud reports is roughly the same as last year, more people lost a lot more money to fraud.”
Which scams and payment methods accounted for large reported losses?
Scam categories
Investment scams had the largest reported loss total, at $5.7 billion. Imposter scams followed at $2.95 billion. Imposter scams were the most commonly reported fraud category, though the FTC’s figures distinguish how often a type of scam was reported from how much money people said they lost to it.
Within imposter scams, reported losses to government imposters rose by $171 million, reaching $789 million in 2024. Job and employment-agency scam reports nearly tripled between 2020 and 2024; reported losses in that category increased from $90 million to $501 million over the same period.
Payment methods
The FTC’s 2024 Data Book recorded $2.09 billion in reported losses through bank transfers and payments, and $1.42 billion through cryptocurrency. The agency said consumers reported losing more through bank transfers or cryptocurrency combined than through all other payment methods combined. These payment-method amounts describe reported losses, not independently verified transactions.
How to read the headline alongside the median loss
The FTC reported a $497 median loss across fraud reports in its 2024 Data Book. That median and the $12.5 billion aggregate answer different questions: the aggregate adds reported losses across cases, while the median is the midpoint of reported losses. Neither should be treated as the amount every person lost or as a prediction of what a future victim may lose.
The FTC announced the loss and report figures in its March 10, 2025 press release. Its director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Christopher Mufarrige, said the data showed that “scammers’ tactics are constantly evolving.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to do if you experienced a scam
Report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC says people who report losing money receive information about next steps they can take to try to recover it. Filing a report does not mean the FTC will intervene in an individual complaint or that money will be recovered. The agency uses Sentinel reports to support trend analysis and law-enforcement investigations.
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