The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published new data revealing that Americans lost over $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, marking a dramatic escalation from the $1.4 billion recorded in 2023 and continuing a years-long trend that has seen losses surge since 2020.
The report paints a stark picture of how social media platforms have become fertile ground for fraudsters, with investment scams, romance fraud, and shopping deception accounting for the vast majority of reported losses.
The Scale of the Problem
According to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network data, social media remained the top contact method for fraud in 2025. The $2.1 billion figure represents only a fraction of actual losses, as the agency estimates that fewer than 5% of fraud victims actually report their experiences to the government.
Key findings from the report include:
- Investment scams led all categories, accounting for roughly $1.1 billion of losses. The majority involved cryptocurrency-related fraud, where victims were lured with promises of extraordinary returns.
- Romance scams cost Americans approximately $480 million, with fraudsters building fake relationships over weeks or months before requesting money transfers.
- Online shopping fraud accounted for $280 million, often involving ads for products that never arrive or counterfeit goods.
Platform Breakdown
While the FTC does not assign responsibility to specific platforms in its report, the data indicates that Instagram and Facebook together accounted for over 60% of reported social media fraud incidents in 2025. TikTok, which has seen explosive growth in advertising and commerce features, saw its share of fraud reports increase significantly compared to prior years.
The proliferation of AI-generated content has made social media scams significantly harder to detect. Fraudulent advertisements featuring convincing deepfake videos of celebrities endorsing cryptocurrency platforms or investment schemes continued to appear at scale, often re-emerging shortly after platforms took action to remove them.
The AI Amplification Effect
Security researchers and law enforcement agencies have consistently flagged the role of generative AI in amplifying social media fraud. AI tools now allow criminal groups to:
- Generate convincing fake profiles with realistic backstories, photos, and posting histories
- Automate personalized messages to thousands of potential victims simultaneously
- Create deepfake video content that mimics real celebrities or trusted public figures
- Translate scam scripts into dozens of languages to target global audiences with minimal effort
The FTC warned that AI has fundamentally shifted the cost structure of fraud operations, allowing smaller criminal groups to conduct campaigns that previously required significant resources and technical expertise.
Who Is Most Affected
The data showed that no age group is immune, but the impact varies:
- Adults aged 18–29 reported losing money to social media scams more often than any other age group.
- Adults aged 70 and older reported the highest median individual losses per incident, often exceeding $10,000 per case.
- Investment scams disproportionately affected those aged 30–60, particularly individuals with some investment experience who believed they understood the risks.
Recommendations
The FTC recommends the following practices to reduce exposure to social media fraud:
- Treat unsolicited investment opportunities with extreme skepticism, especially those originating through direct messages on social platforms.
- Verify identities independently before sending money, even if a contact appears to be a known person — accounts are frequently compromised or spoofed.
- Never pay anyone who requires cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers as the sole accepted payment method.
- Report suspected fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov to help the agency track evolving tactics.
- Enable privacy settings on social media profiles to limit the information available to potential fraudsters.
Industry Response
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, stated that it uses automated systems and human reviewers to detect and remove fraudulent advertisements and fake accounts. The company did not comment specifically on the FTC's 2025 data. TikTok similarly pointed to its advertising policies and enforcement efforts.
Critics argue that platform-level enforcement remains inadequate given the scale of financial harm documented by the FTC, and calls have grown louder in Congress for legislation that would hold platforms more directly liable for fraud that originates on their services.
The full FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book is available through the agency's website.