Cybersecurity Policy Report, Reported Social Media Scams in 2025 Led to $2.1B in Losses, FTC Says, (Apr 28, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
By Lynn Stanton
In 2025, “nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam said that it started on social media, with reported losses reaching a staggering $2.1 billion,” according to the Federal Trade Commission.
This pattern of social media dominating scam losses held true across all age groups, the commission said.
“The Data Spotlight notes that social media creates easy access to billions of people from anywhere in the world, making a scammer’s job easier at very little cost. Scammers may hack a user’s account, exploit what a user posts to figure out how to target them, or buy ads and use the same tools used by real businesses to target people by age, interests or shopping habits,” the FTC said.
Facebook was the origin of more scam losses than any other social media platform in 2025, followed by WhatsApp and Instagram as “a distant second and third,” with Facebook accounting for more reported losses than text and e-mail scams combined, the agency said.
As for types of scams, investment scams originating on social media accounted for losses of $1.1 billion, the FTC said, while shopping scams were the most reported type of social media scam in 2025 and 60% of reported romance scams originating on social media.
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