Scam victims are one of the largest unrepresented groups in consumer law. They lose more every year, they rarely find each other, and the people who do reach them first are often more scammers, posing as recovery firms. This is what the data says about the legal market forming around them, for lawyers deciding whether to take these cases.

US class and enforcement settlements in 2025, a record
$79B+
federal class actions filed in 2025
13,000+
median securities class settlement in 2025, a record
$17.3M
of eligible losses paid by the Madoff Victim Fund
93.71%
of allowed claims for FTX customer classes
105%
median claims rate in class settlements
9%

Class actions hit a record

By Duane Morris's count, the top ten settlements in each practice area added up to more than $79 billion in 2025, up from $42 billion in 2024; its press release rounds the total to "more than $70 billion", so cite the method with the number. Antitrust led with $45.99 billion, followed by securities at $3.45 billion and consumer fraud at $2.1 billion. A new category, generative AI and crypto, reached $1.59 billion.17

More than 13,000 federal class actions were filed in 2025, and courts granted more than 68% of motions for class certification, up from 63%.7 The first half of 2026 brought in another $53.8 billion, most of it from a $34 billion card interchange settlement.2

Securities and crypto

Securities class action filings fell to 207 in 2025, from 226, but the market value at stake, measured as Disclosure Dollar Loss, hit a record $694 billion. Nine filings were related to crypto, up from seven.8 Seventy-four cases settled for $3.0 billion in total, with a record median of $17.3 million.9

What recovery looks like for fraud victims

The large fraud cases show what organized recovery can achieve: bankruptcy trustees, victim funds and regulators returning most of the money, sometimes years later.

CasePaid outRecovery
Madoff Victim Fund$4.3B to 40,930 victims93.71% of eligible losses3
Madoff liquidation (SIPA trustee)$14.799B distributed of $15.509B recoveredAs of 23 October 202610
FTX bankruptcyAbout $10B by March 2026, about $900M more on 31 July 2026Customer classes at 105% of allowed claims4
Celsius bankruptcyMore than $2.53B to about 251,000 creditors by August 2024Fourth round of $344.4M from February 202611
Wells Fargo (CFPB order, 2022)More than $2B in redress, plus a $1.7B penaltyConsumer redress order12

Scam victims rarely get this far. The 127,271 bitcoin the US is seeking to forfeit from Prince Group, a network accused of running forced-labor scam compounds, is the clearest example: in September 2026 the judge struck the claims of nine alleged scam victims and told them to seek remission from the Justice Department instead.13 Read our investigation.

Who pays when a scam succeeds

In the US, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E protect consumers from unauthorized transfers. Most scams involve payments the victim made themselves, and banks are generally not required to refund those. We found no 2025-26 US ruling holding a bank or exchange liable to a scam victim. The edges are moving, though:

  • Zelle. The CFPB sued Zelle's operator and three banks in December 2024 and dismissed the case with prejudice in March 2025.14 New York's attorney general filed a similar suit in August 2025; in July 2026 a judge refused to dismiss it, and Zelle said it would appeal.15
  • Wires. In New York v. Citibank, a federal court held in January 2025 that the EFTA can reach consumer online wire transfers. The Second Circuit heard argument in April 2026, and we found no ruling yet.16

The UK has gone further. Since 7 October 2024, payment firms must reimburse most victims of authorised push payment fraud, up to £85,000 per claim. By 31 March 2026, firms had returned £316 million, 88% of the money lost in eligible claims.17 Claims outside the scheme are harder: in 2023 the UK Supreme Court found banks have no duty to stop payments a customer authorises.18

Crypto platforms after a hack

The Binance hack on 29 October 2026, about $6.3 billion, will test how much an exchange's promises are worth. Binance has pledged to cover all user losses.19 One UK lawyer, Alexander Shirtcliff of Edwin Coe, cautioned: "Customers should not regard this as legally binding."20 We found no lawsuits filed by 31 October.

Arbitration clauses are the main obstacle in exchange litigation. In Williams v. Binance, a New York court held in February 2026 that claims from before 20 February 2019 cannot be forced into arbitration.21 Read what we know about the Binance hack.

The claimant problem

Most of the cost of a group case is finding the group and proving each loss. The FTC's study of 149 class settlements found a median claims rate of 9%. Notice by email alone drew about 3%, postcards about 6% and full notice packets about 10%.6

Scam victims are harder to reach than most classes. Only about 4.8% of fraud victims complain to a government agency or the Better Business Bureau, by the FTC's estimate.22 The ones who do report to the FBI are not small cases: crypto complaints averaged $62,604 in 2025, 18,589 people lost more than $100,000 each, and Americans aged 60 and over lost $7.75 billion.5

A group that has already found itself, with each member's losses, dates and evidence in one place, removes most of that cost before a lawyer spends anything.

Money for these cases

US commercial litigation funders committed $2.8 billion to new cases in 2025, across 346 deals from 39 funders.23 Mass arbitration has cooled: filings with the American Arbitration Association fell from about 280,000 in 2024 to about 105,000 in 2025.24

Fake recovery lawyers

Scam victims are targeted again by people posing as lawyers. The FBI warned in August 2025 that fake firms use real attorneys' names, claim government ties and ask for payment in crypto or gift cards: "There are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies."25 Recovery scams cost Americans $1.4 billion in 2025.5

That is why ScamMarketCap checks every listed lawyer's bar membership before showing a check mark, and why lawyers can only message members who chose to hear from them.

How ScamMarketCap works for lawyers

People report scams in their own words and add themselves to cases with "I was affected too", along with what they lost. When a case reaches 10 people, listed lawyers whose practice areas match get an email. You can read every case, message the person who reported it, and message everyone in its group who is open to hearing from a lawyer.

This article is for information. It is not legal advice.

Sources

  1. DMCAR Trend #1: settlement numbers broke the $40 billion mark for the fourth year in a row, Duane Morris Class Action Defense Blog, 8 January 2026. ↩ ↩2

  2. Class Action Review 2026-2027: mid-year settlement report, Duane Morris, 1 July 2026. ↩ ↩2

  3. Madoff victim fund completes payouts, Reuters via Insurance Journal, 2 January 2025. ↩ ↩2

  4. FTX announces fifth distribution of approximately $900 million, FTX Recovery Trust, 17 July 2026; and FTX Recovery Trust to distribute $2.2B, Cointelegraph, 19 March 2026. ↩ ↩2

  5. 2025 Internet Crime Report, FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 6 April 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Consumers and Class Actions: a retrospective and analysis of settlement campaigns, US Federal Trade Commission, September 2019. ↩ ↩2

  7. Duane Morris Class Action Review 2026, Duane Morris, 6 January 2026. ↩ ↩2

  8. Securities Class Action Filings: 2025 Year in Review, Cornerstone Research and Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, January 2026. ↩

  9. Median securities settlement amount reaches a record high, Cornerstone Research, 19 February 2026. ↩

  10. The Madoff Recovery Initiative, SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, figures as of 23 October 2026. ↩

  11. Celsius bankruptcy distributions exceed $2.5 billion, The Block, 27 August 2024; and Fourth distribution, Celsius distribution portal, 22 January 2026. ↩

  12. CFPB orders Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion, CFPB, 20 December 2022. ↩

  13. Memorandum and Order, United States v. Approximately 127,271 Bitcoin (ECF 506), US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 25 September 2026. ↩

  14. CFPB sues JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo over Zelle, CFPB, 20 December 2024 (case dismissed with prejudice on 4 March 2025). ↩

  15. Zelle must face New York attorney general's fraud lawsuit, Reuters via Insurance Journal, 24 July 2026. ↩

  16. Second Circuit poised to rule on what law applies to consumer wire fraud, Mayer Brown, 8 December 2025. ↩

  17. APP scams reimbursement dashboard, Payment Systems Regulator, updated 30 July 2026. ↩

  18. Law360 on the Santander APP fraud case, Charles Russell Speechlys, 6 January 2026. ↩

  19. Binance hack: Tether and Circle freeze stablecoins, NBC News, 29 October 2026. ↩

  20. Binance's $6.3 billion hack: the legal fallout, LawFuel, 30 October 2026. ↩

  21. New York judge blocks Binance bid to force US crypto claims into arbitration, Cointelegraph, 27 February 2026. ↩

  22. Prepared statement on "The Rising Scam Economy", US Federal Trade Commission, 25 March 2026. ↩

  23. Big Law's share of litigation funding drops in 2025, ABA Journal, 26 March 2026, reporting Westfleet Advisors data. ↩

  24. What 2025 data reveals about mass arbitration, American Arbitration Association, June 2026. ↩

  25. Fictitious law firms target cryptocurrency scam victims, FBI public service announcement I-081325-PSA, 13 August 2025. ↩