Financial Crime World

Record-High Financial Fraud Losses in the United States

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released new data revealing a shocking record-high number of financial fraud losses in 2023. According to the FTC, consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to financial fraud, marking a 14% increase over reported losses in 2022.

Investment Scams Take the Top Spot

Investment scams were the most common type of financial fraud, with consumers reporting losses of over $4.6 billion, a 21% increase from the previous year. Imposter scams came in second, with nearly $2.7 billion lost to these schemes.

Digital Tools Enable Scammers

According to FTC Director Samuel Levine, “Digital tools are making it easier for scammers to target hard-working Americans, and we see the effects of that in the data we’re releasing today.” The agency is working to take action against those scams and prevent future losses.

Most Common Contact Methods Used by Scammers

The most common method used by scammers to reach consumers was via email, displacing text messages as the top contact method. Phone calls were the second most commonly reported contact method for fraud, followed by text messages.

FTC’s Efforts to Combat Financial Fraud

In 2023, the FTC took several steps to combat financial fraud:

  • Cracking down on illegal telemarketing calls
  • Proposing a ban on impersonator fraud
  • Cracking down on investment schemes
  • Confronting emerging forms of fraud, such as the misuse of artificial intelligence-enabled voice cloning
  • Stepping up enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act

FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network

The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network received 5.4 million reports in 2023, including identity theft reports and complaints related to other consumer issues. The agency uses these reports as the starting point for many law enforcement investigations and shares them with federal, state, local, and international law enforcement professionals.

Access the Data

A breakdown of the reports received in 2023 is available on the FTC’s data analysis site at ftc.gov/exploredata.