People misplaced $2.1 billion to social media scams in 2025, an eightfold enhance since 2020, in line with a report launched Monday by the Federal Commerce Fee.
Practically 30% of People who reported being a sufferer of a rip-off final 12 months stated the rip-off originated on social media, with Fb most regularly being recognized because the social media platform the place the rip-off originated, in line with the report. Fellow Meta-owned platforms WhatsApp and Instagram had been ranked a distant second and third, the FTC stated.
“In 2025, folks reported shedding far extra money to scams on Fb alone than they reported shedding to textual content or e mail scams,” the fee stated.
Scams originating on Fb value customers $794 million in 2025, whereas WhatsApp and Instagram mixed for $659 million in losses.
Representatives for Meta did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
The FTC stated social media scams largely fall into three classes: funding, purchasing and romance. The best amount of cash — $1.1 billion — was misplaced to funding scams typically rooted in adverts or posts providing a program to show funding strategies.
Procuring scams had been essentially the most reported social media rip-off in 2025, with greater than 40% of social media rip-off victims reporting they acquired ripped off by ordering one thing they noticed in a social media advert — “all the pieces from garments and make-up to automobile components and even puppies,” the Company stated.
Romance scams are additionally standard on social media. Practically 60% of people that had been victimized by a romance rip-off in 2025 stated it originated on a social media platform. “Scammers typically tailor-made their pitch based mostly on folks’s profiles, later inventing a disaster requiring cash or casually providing funding recommendation to attract them onto a faux funding platform,” the FTC stated.
All age teams, apart from folks 80 or older, reported shedding extra money to scams that started on social media than some other technique of contact.
To keep away from being a sufferer of social media scams, the FTC advises shoppers to restrict who can see their posts and contacts on social media. Additionally, by no means let somebody you might have met solely on social media make your funding choices.
And earlier than shopping for one thing you have seen marketed on social media, do analysis on the corporate on the FTC.
If you happen to suspect you might have been a sufferer of a rip-off try, report it to authorities, such because the FTC’s web site.
