Fraud and scams were paid but became more expensive in 2024

Banks reported a little more fraud cases in 2024, compared to 2023, and consumers reported a little fewer cases of scams. However, scammers have become more expensive, because criminals extracted more funds in their victims group, and compared to pre-pandemic levels, both fraud rates and fraud remain high.

The results come from the data recently published by the financial crime network (Fincen, an agency within the Treasury Department) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The statistics from the two agencies help to quantify the costs that the fraud and fraud economies caused consumers and the industry of financial services. Consumers lost $ 12.5 billion compared to scams in 2024, while banks probably lost billions.

The tendency of fraud and deception becoming more expensive has existed for years. In 2022Data from FTC, Transunion and Lexisnexis risk solutions have suggested that fraud and frauds have increased at the beginning of the pandemic, then began to withdraw, but the cost continued to increase in the same period of time. More Recent data They also suggested fraud and scams became more expensive over time.

Here is a breakdown of the categories of fraud and scam they grew and reduced:

Banks reported less check, loan, card fraud

Fincen follows the fraud reports from storage institutions and other companies through suspicious activity reports (SARS), which many institutions are legally obliged when a transaction of over $ 2,000 seems to be suspicious. Many of these companies also volunteer lower transactions when they seem suspicious.

Little over a third of the 1.5 million fraud SAs submitted by storage institutions in 2024 were related to verification fraud, according to FINCEN data. However, this category of fraud was reduced for the first time in 2020.

Also, the number of credit fraud reports and debit card slightly decreased in 2024 for the first time from Pandemic, up to 298,000 reports from 300,000 the previous year. The same was true for the fraud of consumer loans, up to 75,000 reports from 83,000 the previous year.

The form of fraud that grew the most was a wire transfer fraud, not to be confused with the larger category of wire fraud. The FINCEN data on wire transfer fraud refers specifically in situations in which a criminal misleads a financial institution in carrying out an unauthorized wire transfer. Wire transfer fraud increased from 98,000 to 2023 to 120,000 in 2024.

The fraud related to the automatic compensation transfers of the Compensation House (ACH) has also increased easily, from 200,000 to 2023 to 205,000 in 2024.

FINCEN does not issue data on the total losses related to SARS. However, if the trends on the realm of deception are mirrored in the world of fraud, a slight decrease in the total number of fraud reports could be accompanied by an increase in total cost.

Impostor scams: less frequent, more expensive

The FTC follows the reports of the deception from consumers through a network of law enforcement agencies, as well as direct reports to the commission.

The number of reports about impostor scams decreased slightly from 860,000 in 2023 to 850,000 in 2024, according to FTC data. The FTC defines these as schemes in which the scam argues that it is an entity that they are not – for example, a member of the victim’s family, the Social Security Administration or the Victim Bank.

The median loss for the impostor’s scam has remained constant around $ 800. However, the total money lost in impostor scams increased from $ 2.7 billion to $ 3.0 billion. This suggests that the relatively small number of extremely expensive impostor scams – those rare events in which a victim loses tens of thousands of dollars – have become more expensive.

Investment scams: More frequently, the most expensive

Also, Investment scams – The schemes that falsely promise a high yield on an investment, without risk, led to the largest losses of any category followed by the FTC, although the category did not have the largest number of reports. This is due to the fact that investment scaters are more and more expensive for victims than other types of scams.

Investment scams brought losses of about $ 5.7 million in 2024, up from $ 4.8 million in 2023. Median loss also increased from $ 8,000 to over $ 9,000.

The total number of reports of the investment cheaters increased slightly, from 110.00 to 120,000.

Fraud vs. scams

In the financial world, a fraud is a financial theft that the victim did not authorize. An example is a criminal who uses the loan or debit card of a victim, without the knowledge or permission of the victim.

A scam is a theft that the victim has authorized, usually because they were fooled to do so. An example is a criminal who pretends to be the victim’s bank to get information from the victim.

This difference in what the victim has or has not authorized also creates a difference in liability. In cases of fraud usually a bank must return the client for losses, even if the bank has not recovered the funds from the fraudator. In cases of scams, the customer usually cannot recover his losses from the bank; They can only get their money back if law enforcement takes it from the criminal.