FTC: US consumers lost $770M to social media scams in 2021, about 25% of all fraud losses for the year and up 18x from the $42M in losses reported in 2017
A growing number of U.S. consumers are getting scammed on social media according to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission … Source: Federal Trade Commission .
TechCrunchSarah Perez
Context & Ripple Effects
The FTC's 2021 finding established social media as a major fraud entry point rather than a marginal online channel. Later FTC reporting reinforced that pattern: one in four reported fraud losses from January 2021 through June 2023 began on social media.
The trajectory continued in subsequent reporting, with $2.1B in reported social-media scam losses in 2025 and Facebook identified as the largest originating platform. That makes the 2021 figure an early benchmark for a persistent channel-specific fraud problem.
First-order effects
Consumers who encountered fraud through social platforms accounted for roughly a quarter of the FTC's reported fraud losses in 2021, elevating social feeds and messaging into a priority source of consumer harm.
The FTC gains a channel-specific measure of fraud exposure that distinguishes social-media scams from the broader fraud total.
Second-order effects
Social platforms face stronger pressure to treat scam prevention as a core safety problem as FTC reporting links a growing share of reported losses to their services.
Fraud reporting and enforcement attention can increasingly focus on where contact originated, not only on the scam category or payment method used.
Third-order effects
If channel-level reporting continues, platform accountability for scam discovery and outreach will become a more durable part of consumer-protection oversight.
The pattern points to online fraud becoming organized around distribution channels—especially social platforms—rather than solely around individual scam types.
The trend: Consumer-fraud measurement is shifting toward identifying the digital channels that initiate scams, putting social platforms under more sustained scrutiny.
Platforms love scams b/c user engagement is so high from all the accounts they create, posts, and messaging; bit to mention the panicked use by victims https://twitter.com/...
FTC data show that social media is now a highly profitable way for fraudsters to scam Americans. More than 1 in 4 people who reported losing money to fraud last year said it started on social media, where scammers can often target people with precision. https://www.ftc.gov/...
.@FTC says social media a “gold mine” for scams. Suggests consumers can protect themselves by opting out of targeted advertising. https://www.ftc.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
Fraudulent investment schemes were the most reported, followed by romance fraud and online shopping fraud. The worst platforms for it? Instagram (36%), Facebook (28%) and WhatsApp (9%). The only other platforms listed was Telegram (7%).
Reports to @FTC show that social media is also increasingly where scammers go to con people. More than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post, or a message: https://www.ftc.gov/... #DataSpotlight
FTC finds huge surge in consumer reports about losing money to scams initiated through social media. About one fourth of all fraud losses reported to the FTC stem from scams that consumers said originated on social media: https://www.ftc.gov/...
The FTC's research on fraud over the years has shown that scammers move to where people are. Phone to email to social media. Looks like that trend continues. https://twitter.com/...
There are probably categories of statements for which the right phrasing is “Facebook and YouTube do x” or “Facebook and Twitter” or whatever. But even that needs to be super clear, or we will wind up with profoundly distorted analysis and bad laws.
Proposed: Anyone who writes “platforms do x” must cite a non-Facebook example or else revise to “Facebook does x.” You know who benefits from public confusion on this point? Facebook.
New report from @FTC: more than third of “online romance scams” where people lost $ started on Facebook or Instagram and that “nearly 9 out of 10” reports of undelivered goods ("usually after seeing an ad") w/ a named platform identified FB or Instagram https://t.co/erJ5Fcol7M