Social media became the costliest way for scammers to reach Americans in 2025, according to new Federal Trade Commission data. People reported losing $2.1 billion to scams that started on a social platform, roughly eight times the 2020 total.
This article walks through what the numbers say, which scam types drive them, how risk varies by age and platform, and what the FTC advises people to do.
How big is the social media scam problem?
In an April 27, 2026 release and an accompanying data analysis, the FTC reported that $2.1 billion in losses in 2025 began with a social media contact. Nearly 30% of the people who reported losing money to a scam said it started on social media. The agency’s footnotes put the precise share at 28% of loss reports.
The FTC stresses that most scams are never reported, so actual losses are likely higher than the figures it can count. Treat the totals as a floor, not a ceiling.
The yearly trend shows steady growth rather than a one-off spike:
| Year | Reported losses from scams that began on social media |
|---|---|
| 2020 | $261 million |
| 2021 | $789 million |
| 2022 | $1.2 billion |
| 2023 | $1.5 billion |
| 2024 | $1.9 billion |
| 2025 | $2.1 billion |
Illustrative arithmetic: $2.1 billion divided by $261 million is about 8.0, which is where the “eightfold” description comes from. The 2025 gain over 2024 was about $200 million, or roughly 10%, a slower rate of growth than the leap between 2020 and 2021.
Where does social media rank among scam contact methods?
The FTC ranks scams by how the contact began. In 2025, by share of loss reports, the breakdown was:
| Contact method | Share of loss reports |
|---|---|
| Website or app | 31% |
| Social media | 28% |
| Phone call | 11% |
| 10% | |
| Text message | 7% |
The ranking by dollars lost differs from the ranking by number of reports. Social media was the costliest contact method overall, meaning it accounted for more reported money lost than any other channel, even though websites and apps drew a slightly larger share of reports. The FTC also noted that people reported losing far more to scams on Facebook alone than to scams that arrived by text or email.
For a wider picture of how impersonation fraud works across channels, see Daily Drolls’ explainer on how fake security alerts fuel imposter scams.
Which scams account for the most money?
Three categories stand out in the FTC’s analysis.
Investment scams
Investment scams caused the largest losses: $1.1 billion, more than half of all social media scam losses. Worked example: $1.1 billion divided by $2.1 billion is about 52%, consistent with the agency’s “more than half” description.
According to the FTC, these schemes often began with an ad or post promoting an investment-education program. Others used WhatsApp groups filled with supposed successful investors. The common thread is that a stranger or a seemingly friendly adviser steers the target toward putting money somewhere, and the social proof is manufactured.
Romance scams
Nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it began on social media. Reported romance-scam losses on social platforms were $298 million. Scammers often study a target’s profile, build rapport, and then introduce a crisis or an investment opportunity.
Shopping scams
Shopping scams were the most frequently reported social media scam type, though not the costliest. More than 40% of people who lost money said they had ordered something they saw advertised on social media. The pattern is familiar: an attractive ad, a payment, and then an item that never arrives or is not what was promised.
The FTC also flagged job and business-opportunity scams, where one in three people who lost money said it started on social media, and fake rental listings, where about half of the analyzed reports cited Facebook.
Who is most exposed, and does age matter?
The popular image of a scam victim is an older person getting a phone call. The social media data complicate that picture. The FTC found that social media was the costliest contact method for every age group under 80. For people 80 and over, it ranked second, behind phone calls.
The share of loss reports in each age group that began on social media falls steadily with age:
| Age group | Share of loss reports that began on social media |
|---|---|
| 18–29 | 40% |
| 30–39 | 32% |
| 40–49 | 32% |
| 50–59 | 32% |
| 60–69 | 29% |
| 70–79 | 23% |
| 80 and over | 14% |
Younger adults are therefore the most likely to say a loss started on a social platform, while older adults are more likely to be reached by phone. Note that these are shares within each age group, not the dollar amounts each group lost. A smaller share can still involve large sums.
Which platforms show up most?
Among platforms, Facebook had the most reported money lost in 2025, followed by WhatsApp and then Instagram. That ordering reflects where reports said the scam began; it does not by itself say one platform is riskier per user, since the platforms differ enormously in size and in how people use them.
The WhatsApp finding is worth noting because of how investment scammers use it. A contact made on one platform is often moved into a private messaging group, where the usual public moderation and the victim’s skepticism are both weaker. Related guidance on stopping unwanted contact at the source appears in Daily Drolls’ piece on what the Do Not Call Registry stops and what it doesn’t.
What does the FTC say people can do?
The agency’s advice is practical and short:
- Limit who can see your posts and contacts. Adjust privacy settings so strangers cannot easily collect details to tailor an approach.
- Never let someone you met on social media direct your investments. The FTC says to learn the signs of investment scams, including guaranteed returns, urgency and requests to move to a private chat.
- Check a company before you buy from an ad. Search its name along with “scam” or “complaint” before paying.
- Report scams. Reports go to the FTC’s ReportFraud site, which feeds the data behind figures like these.
The FTC also reminds the public that it will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money, or promise you a prize. Anyone claiming to be from the agency and doing so is not who they say they are.
Does stronger account security help?
Partly. Securing your own accounts will not stop a scammer from running a fake ad, but it reduces a related risk: takeover of your account to target your friends and family. Strong, unique logins matter here, and Daily Drolls has covered what passkeys are and whether to use them as a way to make account takeover harder.
The larger lesson in the FTC figures is behavioral. Most of the scam types above succeed by compressing time and building false trust. Pausing before paying, moving a conversation out of a private chat, and verifying a seller or adviser through an independent source all attack that design directly.
What the numbers mean going forward
The 2025 data show a channel that has grown every year since 2020 and now sits at the top of the list for reported dollar losses. The categories driving it, such as investment and romance scams, rely less on technical tricks than on persuasion over days or weeks, which makes them hard to filter automatically.
For readers, the useful takeaway from the data is where to put friction: before sending money to anyone met online, before joining an investment group a stranger invited you to, and before buying from an ad from a seller you cannot verify. The FTC’s figures are likely an undercount, which means the true scale of the problem is bigger than the headline number.
This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Sources: Federal Trade Commission
