An annual report issued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released this week has revealed the top scams and losses that impacted Americans in 2024. The annual Data Book categorizes the top scams, as well as how much money has been lost by victims, the methods of contact used by scammers and tracks complaints through past years.
It shows that the total losses in 2024 cost consumers at least $12 billion in fraud and scams, with investment scams being the top-rated scams — impacting one out of three people. However, 70% of victims also reported that they lost money more often when they had been contacted on a social media platform. The total losses reported in that category in 2024 were $1.9 billion.
The 2024 report also shows that 40% of all the consumer reports were related to fraud, with 18% of victims reporting identity theft and 43% of reports being a combination of other scams, including imposters scams, internet services scams or foreign money offer scams.
The misuse of credit card accounts or applications for new credit cards was most common in consumer fraud reports, consisting of nearly 450,000 reports, usually associated with identity theft; that was followed by the fraudulent use of payment apps.
The reports indicate how personally identifiable information can be used to create or hijack email, social media accounts, online shopping, payment accounts or other malicious purposes such as getting insurance or medical care and opening other financial accounts.
The Data Book report also showed that email is the most common form of contact, consisting of 25% of fraud reports, followed by phone calls, texts and social media.
The FTC’s Data Book aggregates statistics from over 6.47 million complaints, taking reports from federal, state, local and even international agencies as well as the Microsoft Corporation Cyber Crime Center, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the U.S. Better Business Bureau and all Attorney General state offices. It uses a secure online database, available only to law enforcement, to aggregate the data before it is released to the public.
While those over the age of 70 reported losing the most amount of money, those in the 20-29 age bracket reported losing money to fraud more often than older people.
The states with the highest per capita rates of reported fraud for the year were: Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Nevada and Maryland. Meanwhile, the states with the highest cases for identity theft were: Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Texas and Delaware. However, the state with the most consumer losses was California ($1.6 billion).
How to stay safe
Because identity theft plays such a huge role in the 2024 scam report, having a good identity theft protection service is an essential step. It can tell you if someone is opening accounts in your name and help you recover losses and re-establish your accounts and identity.
Also, make sure that you’re frequently checking your accounts and bank statements for suspicious activity.
Use strong passwords and a password manager to protect your accounts, especially financial and banking accounts, but also social media and email accounts. Never reuse passwords and never give out passwords to anyone over the phone.
Always use two-factor or multi-factor authentication to protect your accounts whenever possible. It provides an extra step to protect your accounts from hackers and threat actors.
Because email was the top method of contact used by scammers, know who you are emailing and never give out personal information over email to those who request it without knowing who you are communicating with. Have a good antivirus software program on your system to protect against malware, keep it up to date and know what the common signs of phishing are.
