Reported U.S. fraud losses more than doubled between 2021 and 2025, reaching a record $16 billion, while members of the military community lost $684 million last year as scammers increasingly used impersonation, investment schemes and stolen personal information to target victims.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Fraud has become an increasingly costly problem across the United States, with reported losses reaching a record $16 billion in 2025 and military families and veterans among those suffering substantial financial damage.
The Federal Trade Commission reported that total fraud losses more than doubled in four years, climbing from just under $6 billion in 2021 to $16 billion last year.
The number of fraud reports also increased over that period, rising from approximately 2.8 million cases in 2021 to slightly more than 3 million in 2025.
The figures come amid heightened attention to alleged fraud schemes around the country, including the widely reported case involving operators of the so-called “Learning Center” in Minnesota. But FTC data indicate that losses extend far beyond any single case or type of scheme.
Investment fraud generated the largest financial losses among the FTC’s 10 leading fraud categories in 2025.
Victims reported losing more than $8 billion to investment-related schemes, with the average person reporting a loss of approximately $10,500.
The military community was also hit particularly hard. Service members, veterans and others associated with the military reported $684 million in fraud losses during 2025.
One case involved a 76-year-old Marine and Vietnam veteran with PTSD who lost nearly $35,000 after scammers contacted him on his birthday last October.
The scammers initially posed as Apple support representatives before subsequently pretending to work for Chase Bank. They told the veteran that his accounts had become entangled in a racketeering and money-laundering scheme.
Following their instructions, he withdrew cash and handed it to a courier at a Wendy’s restaurant. He later mailed additional money.
“It’s what I saved for a long time in retirement,” the veteran told a California television station. “It’s something that people my age want to look forward to and don’t want to depend on other people for. What they’ve done has taken away my dignity and my way of life, trusting people I don’t know.”
Military personnel can face scams specifically designed around their service and deployments.
Kevin Lilley, digital content manager for the Military Officers Association of America, warned that scammers have impersonated credit-monitoring companies while claiming they can help service members protect themselves from financial fraud.
Instead, criminals can use personal information collected through those interactions to open credit cards, establish lines of credit and gain access to existing financial accounts.
“What seems like a simple step to prevent financial fraud could instead give bad actors easy access to your bank accounts, credit cards, and other critical personal data,” Lilley wrote on the organization’s website.
The threat can be particularly serious for service members preparing for overseas deployments.
According to Lilley, scammers can collect information from news reports, social media and other publicly available sources to determine when military personnel are preparing to leave the country. They may then send texts or emails while posing as credit-monitoring businesses, including companies whose names resemble those of legitimate services.
The increasing sophistication of fraud also challenges the assumption that scams primarily succeed against people who are poorly informed or unusually trusting.
Kendra Cherry, MS, a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, said psychological factors can make virtually anyone vulnerable under the right circumstances.
“There are several factors that can make you more vulnerable to scams,” Cherry wrote for verywellmind.com. “However, it’s important to remember that anyone can be deceived.
“If you look at situations where people have become victims of fraud and think, ‘That could never happen to me; I’m smarter than that,’ you’re probably being misled by your own biases,” she wrote.
One of those vulnerabilities can be a belief that intelligence or experience makes someone effectively immune to manipulation.
FTC figures from 2026 indicate that fraud losses remain severe despite repeated public warnings.
Investment-related schemes have already produced approximately 54,000 reported victims this year, with losses totaling $3.1 billion.
Imposter scams have generated nearly 470,000 reports and approximately $1.8 billion in losses.
Those two categories remain the largest sources of reported fraud damage, but Americans are also losing significant amounts through other schemes.
Online-shopping fraud has produced losses approaching $250 million so far this year.
Fraudulent business and employment opportunities have resulted in more than $300 million in losses, while fake lotteries and sweepstakes have cost victims more than $131 million.
Internet-service-related scams have generated approximately $65 million in reported losses.
Imposter fraud remains the single most frequently reported category, accounting for nearly one-third of fraud reports.
Americans lost almost $3.5 billion to imposter schemes in 2025, according to the FTC.
Approximately $1 billion of that total came from scammers impersonating businesses. Bank impersonation produced the highest losses within that category.
Criminals pretending to represent government agencies accounted for approximately $850 million in losses during 2025, representing a substantial increase from the previous year.
The scale of those losses has prompted the FTC to emphasize enforcement against both business and government impersonation.
Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said fraud does not merely affect individual victims but also undermines confidence in legitimate economic transactions.
“Consumers derive enormous benefits from competitive markets built on truthful information. But fraud undermines that foundation, impeding the market process and preventing markets from operating efficiently,” Mufarrige said.
“The FTC will use every tool available to combat one of the most pernicious forms of fraud — government and business impersonation — and to protect the integrity of the digital economy.”
The latest data show that even as regulators, consumer organizations and military groups expand efforts to warn the public, reported fraud losses continue to rise, with investment schemes and impersonation scams accounting for billions of dollars in damage and veterans and service members remaining among the groups aggressively targeted by criminals.
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