New data from the Federal Trade Commission show social media was the costliest fraud contact method in 2025, with nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam saying it started on social media.
Reported losses reached $2.1 billion — an eightfold increase since 2020 — more than any other contact method used by scammers.
The FTC's 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.
In 2025, people reported losing more money to scams that started on Facebook than on any other social media platform. WhatsApp and Instagram were a distant second and third. People reported losing far more money to scams on Facebook alone than they reported losing to text or email scams.
The data also show that all age groups, with the exception of those 80 and over, reported losing more money to scams that started on social media than any other contact method. Social media ranked second after phone calls for those 80 and over.
Investment scams
Investment scams produced the largest losses of any social media scam category in 2025, with $1.1 billion lost — more than half of the total amount lost to social media scams. These scams often start with an ad or post offering a program to teach people how to invest. Other scammers posed as friendly advisers or created WhatsApp groups full of "successful investors" sharing fake testimonials.
Shopping scams
Shopping scams were the most reported type of social media scam in 2025, with more than 40% of people who lost money to a social media scam reporting that they ordered something they saw in a social media ad — everything from clothes and makeup to car parts and even puppies. Many of these ads led to unfamiliar websites, while others sent people to sites impersonating well-known brands that claimed to offer big discounts.
Romance scams
Romance scams also thrive on social media. Nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it started on a social media platform. Scammers often tailored their pitch based on people's profiles, later inventing a crisis requiring money or casually offering investment advice to draw them onto a fake investment platform.
How to protect yourself
The FTC advises consumers to take the following steps to avoid social media scams:
- Limit who can see your posts and contacts on social media. Visit your privacy settings to set some restrictions, so scammers have less to work with.
- Never let someone you have met only on social media direct your investment decisions.
- Before you buy, check out the company. Search online for its name plus "scam" or "complaint."
To learn more about how to spot, avoid, and report scams — and how to recover money if you've paid a scammer — visit ftc.gov/scams. To report a scam, visit ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
