Scammers Stole 70% More Money From Americans Last Year Than in 2020
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It's no secret that fraudsters have been having a field day throughout the pandemic, conning Americans out of billions of dollars. But it’s not just older folks who are being scammed — new data shows that young people are increasingly susceptible to the evolving tactics of swindlers.
The Federal Trade Commission released new numbers Tuesday showing that Americans lodged nearly 6 million fraud and scam complaints last year, accounting for a record-high amount of financial loss.
“In 2021, 5.7 million people filed reports and described losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud — a $2.4 billion jump in losses in one year,” Bridget Small, a consumer education specialist at the FTC, wrote in an email alert to consumers.
In other words, the amount of money Americans lost to scammers in 2021 increased 70% from the year prior, with a median loss of $500 per person. In 2020, Americans reported a loss of more than $3.4 billion: another historically high number.
The three most popular types of fraud reported to the FTC last year were imposter scams; online shopping fraud; and fake sweepstakes, lotteries and prizes. Imposter scams — when someone pretends to be a trusted business or acquaintance, then asks for money — accounted for more than $2.3 billion in losses alone. Imposter scams were also the biggest scam in terms of the amount of money stolen.
