FTC finds that social media scams lead to more losses than other scams

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released data finding that social media-based scams account for $2.7 billion in losses since 2021. This is more than any other contact method.

Reports during the first half of the year show that the most frequently reported scams on social media are related to online shopping, with 44% of reports pointing to fraud related to buying or selling products online. Most of these reports come from people who never received the items they ordered after responding to an ad on Facebook or Instagram.

While online shopping scams are the most commonly reported scam on social media, the report notes that scams using social media to promote bogus investment schemes account for larger overall losses, accounting for 53% of all the money reported lost to scams on social media in the first half of the year. Cryptocurrency played a significant role in the investment scams consumers reported; more than half of the reports showed that consumers paid the scammers using cryptocurrency.

After investment scams, the spotlight noted that romance scams accounted for the second-most reported scam losses on social media.

Read the data spotlight here.

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