FTC Reports Eightfold Surge in Social Media Scam Losses Since 2020

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has long tracked consumer fraud complaints. Social platforms have become a major gateway for financial crime because they combine personal data, instant messaging and advertising tools. Scammers can hijack accounts to impersonate victims’ friends and relatives and use targeted ads to identify potential victims, allowing fraud to operate on a larger scale while remaining harder to detect.

The FTC’s latest data show that losses from social media scams have reached $2.1 billion, eight times the level recorded in 2020, reflecting the rapid expansion of such crimes in recent years. The report said scammers use compromised accounts and platform advertising tools to reach victims, making social media the leading source of online financial scams.