Visualizing The Most Common Types of Scams in America 💳
What We're Showing
The ten most common types of fraud in the U.S. by the number of reports made to the Federal Trade Commission in 2024, and the total dollar value lost from each type of fraud.
Data comes from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Types of Fraud
A full list of all fraud types can be found on the FTC website.
- Imposter scams: Someone pretends to be a trusted person to get consumer to send money/give personal information
- Online shopping/negative reviews: Undisclosed costs, failure to deliver on time, non-delivery, business preventing honest reviews
- Business/job opportunities: Fraudulent franchise opportunities, multi-level marketing schemes, job scams
- Investment related: Fraudulent investment opportunities in day trading, gold, art, other products
- Internet services: Problems with website content, difficulty canceling online account, issues with payment service, undisclosed charges
- Prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries: Promotions for free prizes for a fee, foreign lotteries offered through phone or e-mail
- Telephone and mobile services: Unauthorized charges, problems with mobile applications
- Health care: Fraudulent, misleading or deceptive claims for treatments or products
- Travel, vacations, timeshare plans: Deceptive offers for free or low-cost vacations, misleading time share offers
- Mortgage foreclosure relief, debt management: Lenders/brokers making false promises to save consumers’ homes from foreclosure, credit organizations charging excessive fees
America’s Most Costly Scams
Imposter scams—where fraudsters pose as government officials, friends, or coworkers to steal money or personal information—were the most frequently reported type of fraud in the U.S. last year, with over 840,000 cases filed with the FTC.
This cost consumers almost $3 million in losses.
However, while imposter scams were the most common, investment-related scams led to the biggest financial losses, costing Americans a total of $5.7 billion.
The median loss per victim exceeded $9,000.