What scams cost
How the live counter works
The Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimated that scams took $442B from people worldwide in the 12 months before its 2025 report, based on a survey of 46,000 adults in 42 markets.
Spread evenly over a year, that is about $1,210,958,904 a day, or $14,016 every second. The counter starts at zero at midnight UTC on 1 January and adds that amount every second.
It shows the pace of losses, not a live measurement of individual scams. Treat it as a floor: the same survey series estimated $1.03 trillion a year earlier with a different method, and in the US alone the FTC estimates the true cost of fraud in 2025 was as high as $261.5 billion, against $15.9 billion actually reported.
- a year (estimate)
- $442B
- a day
- $1.21B
- a second
- $14,016
- of victims get their money back
- 4%
Reported losses have grown every year
Losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center rose from $3.5 billion in 2019 to $20.9 billion in 2025, when complaints passed one million for the first time. These are only the losses people reported.
Source: FBI IC3 Internet Crime Reports, 2019 to 2025.
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Reported losses |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $3.5 billion |
| 2020 | $4.2 billion |
| 2021 | $6.9 billion |
| 2022 | $10.3 billion |
| 2023 | $12.5 billion |
| 2024 | $16.6 billion |
| 2025 | $20.9 billion |
The numbers we cite
- lost to scams worldwide in a year
- $442B
57% of adults had a scam experience; 23% lost money. Survey of 46,000 adults in 42 markets.
Global Anti-Scam Alliance & Feedzai, October 2025
- of scam victims get their money back
- 4%
The rest absorbed the loss, alone.
Global Anti-Scam Alliance & Feedzai, November 2024
- reported to the FBI by Americans in 2025
- $20.9B
1,008,597 complaints, a record. Investment scams alone: $8.6B.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
- upper estimate of the true cost of fraud to Americans in 2025
- $261.5B
The FTC's range once unreported fraud is counted is $38.1B to $261.5B, against $15.9B actually reported.
US Federal Trade Commission, October 2026
- projected crypto scam revenue in 2025
- $17B
At least $14B is confirmed on-chain. Impersonation scams grew about 1,400% year over year.
Chainalysis, January 2026
- an American files a cybercrime complaint with the FBI
- 1 every 31s
1,008,597 complaints across 2025.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
Where the money goes
Investment scams, often run through fake trading apps and crypto platforms after weeks of friendly messages, now account for the largest share of reported losses in the US.
- $11.4B
- lost in US complaints involving cryptocurrency (181,565 complaints)FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
- $8.6B
- lost to investment scams reported to the FBIFBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
- $7.9B
- lost to investment scams reported to the FTC, about half of all reported fraud lossesUS Federal Trade Commission, March 2026
- $3.5B
- lost to impostors (fake banks, agencies and companies) reported to the FTCUS Federal Trade Commission, March 2026
- $893M
- in losses from about 22,000 FBI complaints involving AI, the first year it was trackedFBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
On ScamMarketCap
Figures from our own reports. Member reports are people’s own accounts; case files summarize public records.
- 0
- member reports
- 0
- people affected
- $0
- reported by members
- 96
- documented case files
Sources
- Global State of Scams Report 2025Global Anti-Scam Alliance & Feedzai, October 2025
- Global State of Scams Report 2024Global Anti-Scam Alliance & Feedzai, November 2024
- 2025 Internet Crime ReportFBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), April 2026
- FTC testimony to the Joint Economic Committee on the rising scam economyUS Federal Trade Commission, March 2026
- Protecting Older Consumers 2025-2026US Federal Trade Commission, October 2026
- Crypto scams in 2025 (2026 Crypto Crime Report)Chainalysis, January 2026
You can quote these figures with a link to this page. Reports and case files are also available as an RSS feed and summarized for AI tools in llms.txt.