Safety

Consumers lost $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, FTC reports

Social media scams inflicted $2.1 billion in consumer losses in 2025—an eightfold surge that makes platforms like Facebook the leading fraud vector, surpassing all other contact methods.

Monday, April 27, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: TechCrunchBY sys://pipeline

Americans lost $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, according to FTC data showing eightfold growth in losses. Facebook was the primary platform, with investment schemes accounting for $1.1 billion and shopping scams comprising over 40% of reported incidents. The report highlights social media scams now cause more consumer losses than any other contact method.

Read original at TechCrunch

Americans lost $2.1 billion to social media scams last year, 8 times more than in 2020. Facebook alone cost users more than texts and emails combined

Social media fraud losses exploded 8x to $2.1B in 2025, with Meta's advertising and messaging infrastructure becoming the primary vector—Facebook alone responsible for $794M.