Imposter scams led fraud reports to the FTC for fifth straight year in 2025, causing $3.5 billion in losses

Rainstar | E+ | Getty Images For the fifth year in a row, imposter scams ranked as the most reported type of fraud in 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission's latest data. While 80% of the roughly 1 million who filed an imposter scam report didn't lose money, the other 20% lost a collective $3.5 billion, the FTC's data shows. "There are some consumers who are losing very high-dollar amounts," said Patty Hsue, chief of staff for the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices. More from Women and Wealth: "The median loss [of $700] is on the lower side but there is a very small percentage of consumers who are losing high six figures and up," Hsue said. "There are definitely some consumers who have lost over $1 million." Losses driven by scams costing $100,000 or more Total fraud losses reported to the FTC in 2025 reached about $15.9 billion — the highest on record and an increase of roughly 27% from $12.5 billion in 2024. Since 2020, reported losses have increased nearly 430%, according to the FTC. The trend is largely driven by a sharp increase in the number of consumers saying they were scammed out of at least $100,000, which occurs more often among victims age 60 or older, according to the FTC. Scams involving losses of $100,000 or more among that age group accounted for $1.6 billion, or 68%, of their total $2.4 billion in losses reported in 2024, according to the FTC's 2025 annual report to Congress , released in December. …