Amerikaner verlieren 3,5 Milliarden US-Dollar an Betrügereien im Jahr 2025 - Social Media Brennte 8x Aufstieg

$3.5 billion. That's what Americans lost to imposter scams in 2025, according to the FTC's latest data. Nearly triple the figure from 2020, and it's the most reported fraud category - one in three fraud reports filed with the FTC last year involved an imposter.

Social Media: The Costliest Attack Vector

Fraudsters reached victims through text, phone, email, social media, and search engine results. But social media was the real money maker. More than $2.1 billion in 2025 losses traced directly to social platforms - an eightfold jump since 2020. Nearly one in three victims who lost money were first contacted on social media.

Facebook losses alone exceeded those from text and email combined. WhatsApp and Instagram came in second and third. The costliest schemes typically started with a fake bank security alert prompting victims to transfer funds to "protect" their accounts. Business impersonators accounted for nearly $1 billion; government impersonators took about $920 million.

FTC's Impersonation Rule on Enforcement

The FTC's Impersonation Rule, in effect since April 2024, gave the agency new teeth. Since then, a dozen enforcement actions have secured over $70 million in consumer redress and halted several schemes. Targets included MediaAlpha (government imposter scheme), American Tax Service (IRS imposter), Blackstone Legal (phantom debt), Click Profit (business imposter), and Accelerated Debt Settlement. In April 2026, the FTC filed a complaint against Innovative Partners for impersonating government and insurance carriers to sell fraudulent health plans.

Overall reported fraud losses across all categories hit roughly $16 billion in 2025 - the highest on record and about 25% above the prior year. The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report put the number even higher: $21 billion lost to cyber-enabled crimes.

The takeaway is straightforward: social media is a firehose of fraud, and imposter scams are growing faster than any enforcement action can keep up. Expect more rulemaking and more aggressive pursuit of the platforms that enable these schemes.

Source: FTC warns of record $3.5 billion losses to imposter scams in 2025
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