Fraud Has Never Been Worse. Here's How to Protect Yourself in 2026

Last year, Americans told the federal government they lost $15.9 billion to scams. That's the most ever reported, and it's almost certainly a small slice of the real number.

The record isn't a one-off. Every major data source we track points the same way. More people are getting hit, the losses per victim are bigger, and the tools criminals use are cheaper and more convincing than they've ever been. Below we cover what the numbers show, why it keeps getting worse, and what you can do about it this week.

The numbers: records broken across the board

The FTC. In March 2026 testimony before Congress's Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost a record $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, up from $12.5 billion in 2024. Fraud reports rose to 3 million, from 2.6 million the year before. According to Lois Greisman, an associate director in the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices, reported fraud losses have climbed nearly 430% since 2020.

The FBI. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) came out with an even bigger number in April. Reported losses reached $20.9 billion in 2025, a 26% jump from $16.6 billion the year before, and complaints topped one million for the first time in IC3's history. That works out to about 3,000 complaints a day.

The hidden total. Most victims never report. The FTC's newest report to Congress, released October 19, 2026, notes that only 4.8% of people who experience smaller-scale fraud report it to a government agency or the Better Business Bureau. After adjusting for underreporting, one FTC method puts total fraud losses across all ages in 2025 at an estimated $261.5 billion, up 33% from the 2024 estimate made the same way.

So the headline figures are just the part of the problem that got reported.

Why fraud keeps getting worse

1. Scammers are going after bigger amounts

It's not only that more people are getting scammed. Each loss is getting larger. Greisman told lawmakers that part of the jump came from a sharp increase in the number of consumers reporting large losses of $100,000 or more.

That pattern hits older Americans hardest. People 60 and over reported losing about $3 billion in 2025, up 25% from 2024. Of that, $2.1 billion, or 70%, came from losses of at least $100,000. Yet only 6% of older people who reported fraud lost that much. A small group of victims is losing life-changing sums. Losses in this age group have grown fivefold since 2020, and the FTC thinks the true cost to older adults in 2025 falls somewhere between $13.3 billion and $119.5 billion.

2. Investment scams are the biggest money-maker

Investment fraud is now the costliest category in both federal datasets. The FTC tied $7.9 billion, nearly half of all reported losses, to investment scams. The FBI counted more than $8.6 billion in investment fraud losses, mostly involving cryptocurrency.

These schemes rarely start with an obvious pitch. They often start with a friendly stranger, a "wrong number" text, or an ad on social media. Next comes a polished trading app that shows fake gains, and then a request for "taxes" or "fees" when you try to withdraw.

3. The first contact is on your phone

Text messages were the most common way victims said scammers first reached them in 2025. Social media was where scams cost the most: consumers reported more than $2 billion in losses from scams that started there.

Impersonation is still the most common approach. The FTC logged over 1 million impostor complaints and more than $3.5 billion in losses, a pattern that hasn't changed since 2020. Scammers pose as your bank, a government agency, a delivery company, tech support, or someone you love.

4. AI made the con cheaper and more convincing

This is the big change. The FBI's 2025 report listed "AI-related" as its own crime category for the first time, with more than 22,000 complaints and nearly $900 million in losses. Investment fraud made up the largest share of that.

Voice cloning is the clearest example. In Florida, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office says scammers cloned the voice of one of its captains and used it in a scheme about fake arrest warrants and missed jury duty. Officials are targets too. U.S. officials disclosed that attackers had used AI voice and text tools to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio in messages to foreign ministers and senior officials.

Businesses face the same problem. Business email compromise caused $3.046 billion in reported losses in 2025, and generative AI makes it easier to impersonate executives and vendors convincingly. Looking ahead, Deloitte's Center for Financial Services estimates that generative AI could push U.S. fraud losses from $12.3 billion in 2023 to $40 billion by 2027 in its most aggressive scenario.

The old warning signs, like bad grammar, a strange accent, or a blurry logo, don't work anymore. As one security analysis of recent FBI warnings put it, visual cues are no longer reliable indicators.

How to protect yourself: a practical playbook

You can't make yourself impossible to target. You can make yourself a lot harder to steal from. These are the habits we recommend.

Verify through a channel you choose

Most scams need you to stay in the conversation they started. So leave it. If "your bank" calls, hang up and dial the number printed on your card. If a relative texts from a new number asking for money, call their old number. If a government agency emails, find its official site yourself. Don't use any phone number or link the message gives you.

Set a family code word, tonight

Some officials now recommend that families and teams agree on shared secret phrases to confirm identity in sensitive situations. Choose a word that isn't on social media. Make a rule that nobody sends money in an "emergency" until the caller gives it. A cloned voice can copy how your son sounds, but it can't know a word he never posted online.

Watch the payment method

Treat any request to pay by gift card, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or cash courier as a stop sign. Do the same for requests to "move your money to a safe account." Those methods are hard to reverse, and that's why scammers want them.

Be suspicious of easy money and urgency

Guaranteed returns, a crypto mentor you met online, an investment app you can only reach through a link someone sent you: these are classic signs of the investment scams behind the biggest losses. Pressure works the same way. A real bank, agency, or business will give you time to call back.

Lock down your accounts

Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere it's offered, and never bypass it, even if a "support agent" asks you to read them a code. Use a password manager so one breach doesn't open every account you have. Set up transaction alerts on your bank and credit cards so you see unusual activity within minutes, not when your statement arrives.

Talk to the older people in your life

Losses of $100,000 or more drive most of the damage to adults 60 and older. A ten-minute conversation can help more than any app. Explain how investment and impostor scams work, agree on the code word, and make it normal to say, "Call me before you send money to anyone."

Report it, even if it's embarrassing

If you've been targeted, contact your bank right away, then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov. With so few victims reporting, every report helps law enforcement see patterns and helps keep the next person from getting hit.

The bottom line

Fraud is at record levels because it pays, and AI has made it cheaper to run. Scammers are going after bigger amounts and using familiar voices and faces to get them. The best defense is a set of fixed habits: verify on your own terms, slow down, guard your payments, and keep an eye on everything that matters to you.

At Gold Patrons, our work comes down to that last habit: continuous monitoring, so you find out about a problem while there's still time to stop it. Start today. Pick your family code word, turn on account alerts, and send this post to someone you love who would rather read it now than find out the hard way.

John Pignetti is the founder of Gold Patrons Data Technology and host of the Burn the Ships podcast.