The Federal Trade Commission this week published a Data Spotlight showing that Americans reported losing $2.1 billion to scams originating on social media in 2025 - more than any other contact method scammers use to reach consumers, and roughly eight times the figure recorded in 2020. The report, released on April 27, 2026, draws on data collected through the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network and documents a pattern of escalating financial harm that now spans every age group under 80.

The scale of the number is striking on its own. But context makes it more alarming: according to the FTC's own data, since most scams are never reported to any government entity, the real total is likely far higher. A 2021 study cited by the agency found that only 4.8% of people who experienced mass-market consumer fraud ever complained to a Better Business Bureau or a government body.

The year-on-year trajectory

The growth in reported losses has been consistent and steep. According to FTC data, consumers reported $261 million in losses to social media scams in 2020. That figure climbed to $789 million in 2021, then to $1.2 billion in 2022, $1.5 billion in 2023, and $1.9 billion in 2024, before reaching $2.1 billion in 2025. Each year represents a new record. The compound effect over five years amounts to an 805% increase in reported losses - and that trajectory has not shown any meaningful deceleration.

For context on the contact method landscape: in 2025, website or app was the top fraud contact method by volume of reports indicating a loss at 31%, while social media came second at 28%, followed by phone call at 11%, email at 10%, and text at 7%. By dollar value, however, social media ranked first by a wide margin. Social media losses of $2.1 billion compare with $1.1 billion attributed to website or app contacts and $1.1 billion from phone calls.

Facebook dominates the loss figures

Among social media platforms, Facebook alone generated more reported scam losses than WhatsApp and Instagram combined. According to the FTC's data, Facebook accounted for $794 million in reported losses in 2025. WhatsApp was second at $425 million, Instagram third at $234 million, and other platforms - including Telegram at $111 million, TikTok at $79 million, LinkedIn at $74 million, and X at $66 million - accounted for the remainder.

The FTC's figures show that in 2025, people reported losing more money to scams on Facebook alone than they reported losing to text scams and email scams combined. That comparison is significant for the advertising industry. Text and email fraud have long been treated as major consumer threats, with substantial regulatory attention and carrier-level filtering infrastructure built around them. Facebook's losses surpassing both channels simultaneously points to a structural problem in how social platforms handle the advertising supply chain.

Sarah Ralston, Chief Product Officer at Proxyware, a digital citizen protection company, put the situation in direct terms: "The FTC's finding that Americans lost $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, an eightfold increase, should end the industry's 'consumer education' response once and for all. When over 40% of victims were defrauded through ads the platforms themselves approved and monetized, this stops being a user awareness problem and becomes a supply chain integrity failure. Facebook alone drove more scam losses than all text and email scams combined, not because users weren't careful enough, but because platforms profit from the same ad infrastructure that bad actors exploit."

Investment scams drove the biggest losses

Not all social media scams are equal in scale. According to the FTC, investment scams produced the largest reported losses among all scam categories originating on social media in 2025, totalling $1.1 billion - more than half of the entire $2.1 billion figure. These scams frequently began with an ad or post promoting a program to teach people how to invest. From there, operators posed as friendly advisers or assembled WhatsApp groups filled with fake testimonials from purported successful investors. Victims were directed to fake but professionally designed investment platforms where they could create accounts, see fabricated profits, and sometimes even withdraw a small amount initially - a tactic designed to build trust before larger deposits were solicited. There was never any real investment. Some victims then reported secondary losses to separate fraudsters claiming they could trace and recover the original funds, for a fee.

Romance scams were a distant second in terms of aggregate reported losses from social media, with $298 million reported. Nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it started on a social media platform, according to the FTC. Scammers typically tailored their approach based on public profile information, later inventing a financial crisis or casually directing the target toward a fake investment platform.

Shopping scams: the most reported category

While investment scams produced the highest dollar losses, shopping scams were the most frequently reported type of social media fraud in 2025. According to the FTC, more than 40% of people who lost money to a scam on social media said the incident began when they ordered something seen in a social media ad. Products ranged from clothing and cosmetics to car parts and even puppies. Many ads linked to unfamiliar websites. Others directed people to sites impersonating well-known brands and offering large discounts. Most people reported paying for items that never arrived. When orders did materialise, items were often counterfeit or significantly different from what was advertised. The FTC noted that these products were frequently shipped from China, with high return shipping costs making returns impractical.

The shopping scam pattern is directly connected to the mechanics of social media advertising. Scammers use the same ad targeting infrastructure that legitimate businesses use - selecting audiences by age, interests, and shopping behaviour - to reach specific groups of consumers at low cost and at scale. The FTC's Data Spotlight noted that by purchasing ads, bad actors gain access to the same tools real businesses use to target consumers, while operating at very little cost from anywhere in the world.

Jobs, housing, and the breadth of exposure

Beyond investment, romance, and shopping fraud, the FTC's report documents scam activity targeting people seeking employment or housing. One in three people who reported losing money to a job or business opportunity scam in 2025 said it originated on social media. A separate analysis of reports about fake rental home listings found that roughly half were posted on Facebook.

The age distribution of social media fraud victims is also broader than popular assumptions might suggest. According to the FTC, social media was the most costly fraud contact method in terms of aggregate reported losses for every age group under 80 in 2025. For those aged 80 and over, it ranked second after phone calls. The share of loss reports involving social media as the contact method by age group was as follows: 40% for the 18-29 bracket, 32% for ages 30-39, 32% for ages 40-49, 32% for ages 50-59, 29% for those aged 60-69, 23% for the 70-79 group, and 14% for those 80 and over. Social media was the most reported contact method for people in their 60s and 70s - a demographic often assumed to avoid platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

The advertising infrastructure question

The FTC's Data Spotlight raises an issue that sits at the intersection of consumer protection and digital advertising: scammers are not simply hacking platforms or sending direct messages. A significant portion of the reported losses flow through the paid advertising ecosystem. The platform's own ad-approval and delivery mechanisms are the delivery vector.

PPC Land has tracked this dynamic across multiple investigations. Internal Meta documents revealed in November 2025 showed the company implemented a so-called penalty bid programme - charging suspected fraudsters higher advertising rates rather than removing them, and setting a 95% certainty threshold before banning an advertiser altogether. Documents from the same period projected that approximately 10% of Meta's 2024 annual revenue, roughly $16 billion, came from advertisements the company internally categorised as promoting scams or prohibited goods. Meta has disputed elements of that characterisation.

Meta removed 134 million scam ads across its platforms during 2025 and reported a more than 50% decline in user reports about scam ads over the preceding 15 months. The company deployed new AI-powered tools in early 2026designed to detect celebrity impersonation and deceptive link redirection, and filed lawsuits against scam advertisers in Brazil, China, and Vietnam on February 26, 2026.

Despite those actions, the Consumer Federation of America filed a class action lawsuit against Meta on April 21, 2026, alleging the company systematically misled Facebook users about the safety of its advertising environment while knowingly profiting from fraudulent ads. The complaint pointed to a 2023 internal document showing Facebook and Instagram users filed approximately 100,000 valid reports of fraudsters messaging them each week, with Meta ignoring or incorrectly rejecting 96% of those reports. The lawsuit was filed under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

In March 2026, IAB Sweden expelled Meta from its membership, ruling that the platform's efforts to combat deceptive advertising were insufficient - a rare formal sanction from a trade organisation.

What Proxyware's data suggests about systemic risk

Proxyware, which operates the Proxyware Digital Threat Index - a global database tracking online threat vectors using more than 100,000 audience and device profiles across 600-plus geolocations in 120 countries - characterises the core problem as one of platform accountability rather than consumer behaviour.

Ralston was direct in her commentary: "Until social media companies are held to the same third-party verification standards we demand from every other media channel, $2.1 billion is just a down payment on next year's losses."

That framing connects to a broader debate within the digital advertising industry about the responsibilities of platforms that simultaneously sell advertising, approve creative, and set the standards that advertising must meet. For marketing professionals, the FTC's data provides a quantified view of the harm that flows through an ad ecosystem when those functions are not adequately separated or independently verified.

The FTC's figures represent only the amounts consumers reported losing. The actual totals, accounting for fraud that goes unreported, are structurally unknowable but almost certainly higher. A research model cited by the FTC estimated that only 4.8% of mass-market consumer fraud victims ever file a formal complaint.

What the FTC report means for the marketing industry

The findings carry direct implications for advertisers operating on social platforms. When a large share of scam-related losses flows through the same ad delivery infrastructure that legitimate brands use, it affects consumer trust in ads broadly - not only in fraudulent ones. PPC Land has previously reported on FTC enforcement activity against fraudulent business opportunity schemes that used social media and search engine advertising to reach consumers.

For agencies and brands running paid social campaigns, the FTC data provides documentation of a pattern that is increasingly attracting both regulatory scrutiny and civil litigation. The Consumer Federation of America lawsuitspecifically examines how Meta's ad auction algorithm creates a feedback loop - users who engage with scam ads are shown additional scam ads, concentrating exposure among the most vulnerable.

The FTC's report is not directed at advertisers. Its official guidance is addressed to consumers - recommending that people limit who can see their posts and contacts, never allow someone met only on social media to direct investment decisions, and research companies before purchasing from ads they encounter. But for the marketing community, the volume of losses flowing through paid advertising channels on social platforms raises questions about what verification standards should look like - and who should bear responsibility when those standards fail.

Timeline

  • 2020 - Americans report $261 million in losses to social media scams, according to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network
  • 2021 - Reported social media scam losses climb to $789 million; Meta discovers network of accounts impersonating U.S. military members, sending millions of scam messages weekly
  • 2022 - Reported losses reach $1.2 billion; Meta internal documents note "lack of investment" in automated scam detection, classifying scam ads as a "low severity" user experience problem
  • 2023 - Reported losses reach $1.5 billion; Facebook and Instagram users file approximately 100,000 valid scam reports per week, with Meta rejecting or ignoring 96% of them
  • 2024 - Reported losses reach $1.9 billion; Meta presents CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a "moderate approach" to scam enforcement focused on countries facing near-term regulatory action; Meta sets 95% certainty threshold before banning advertisers
  • August 25, 2025 - FTC finalises settlements against Click Profit, an e-commerce fraud scheme that used social media advertising to defraud consumers of at least $14 million
  • November 6, 2025 - Reuters publishes investigation into Meta's internal documents; PPC Land reports that Meta projected $16 billion in 2024 revenue from scam and prohibited-goods advertising while running a penalty bid programme
  • November 9, 2025 - PPC Land publishes extended coverage of Meta's scam ad revenue and penalty bidding practices
  • November 30, 2025 - Industry expert Nicole Pruess discusses the 95% ban threshold and what it signals about Meta's enforcement philosophy
  • December 3, 2025 - Meta announces removal of 134 million scam ads during 2025 at the Global Anti-Scam Summit in Washington, DC; reports user scam-ad complaints down 50% over 15 months
  • February 26, 2026 - Meta files lawsuits against scam advertisers in Brazil, China, and Vietnam using celebrity impersonation and ad cloaking techniques
  • March 12, 2026 - IAB Sweden expels Meta from membership over failure to adequately address deceptive advertising
  • March 14, 2026 - Meta announces new AI-powered anti-scam tools including celebrity impersonation detection and deceptive link blocking
  • March 18, 2026 - OXIL Research publishes study based on 28.6 million fraud signals showing working-age adults, not the elderly, are the primary targets of online scam infrastructure
  • April 21, 2026 - Consumer Federation of America files class action lawsuit against Meta in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia alleging knowing profit from fraudulent advertising
  • April 27, 2026 - FTC publishes Data Spotlight and press release showing Americans reported $2.1 billion in social media scam losses in 2025, an eightfold increase since 2020; Facebook accounts for the largest share of losses among individual platforms

Summary

Who - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), drawing on data from its Consumer Sentinel Network, with additional commentary from Proxyware Chief Product Officer Sarah Ralston.

What - Americans reported losing $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, an eightfold increase compared to the $261 million reported in 2020. Social media was the costliest fraud contact method of any channel. Investment scams caused the largest single-category losses at $1.1 billion. Facebook generated more reported losses than any other platform, exceeding the combined totals for text and email fraud. Shopping scams were the most frequently reported category, affecting more than 40% of social media fraud victims.

When - The FTC published its Data Spotlight and associated press release on April 27, 2026, covering losses reported during the 2025 calendar year.

Where - The losses affected consumers across the United States. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X were all identified as platforms through which scams reached consumers. The FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network collects reports nationally.

Why - Social media platforms provide scammers with access to billions of users at very low cost, using the same targeting tools - demographic filters, interest categories, behavioural data - available to legitimate advertisers. The FTC report and related civil litigation reflect growing regulatory and legal pressure on platforms to apply more rigorous third-party verification to the advertising supply chain, as over 40% of reported victims were defrauded through ads the platforms themselves approved and monetised.

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