According to the latest report from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers in the US lost up to $2.1 billion due to social media scams in 2025.
This figure shows the increasing severity of online scams, as losses have increased eightfold compared to previous years.
Notably, social media fraud is currently causing greater losses than any other approach that criminals use, surpassing both email and text messages. Nearly 30% of people reporting losses said the cases started from social media platforms.
Among the platforms, Facebook is the place with the highest number of scammers and financial losses. Followed by WhatsApp and Instagram. Not only is the number of cases high, the total amount of money lost through Facebook is also significantly higher than traditional email or message scams.
The FTC said that forms of social media scams are increasingly diverse. Among them, shopping scams are the most common type.
More than 40% of victims said they ordered products after seeing online advertisements, from clothes, cosmetics to auto parts and even pets. Many advertisements lead to websites of unclear origin or counterfeit famous brands, luring users with deep discount programs.
In addition, investment tricks are also increasing rapidly. Scammers often post advertisements or articles promising to teach how to invest for high profits, then impersonate experts or create chat groups to build trust with fake certifications. According to the FTC, investment scams alone have caused damage of up to 1.1 billion USD in the past year.
Another worrying form of scam is emotional scams. Nearly 60% of victims said they were approached through social networks.
Crooks often study personal profiles to build relationships, then create emergency situations to request money transfers or seduce them to participate in fake investment platforms.
Faced with this situation, the FTC recommends that users need to be vigilant when using social networks. Limiting access to personal information, not trusting investment advice from acquaintances online, as well as carefully checking business information before buying goods are necessary measures to minimize risks.
In the context of social networks becoming increasingly popular, equipping knowledge and skills to recognize scams has become an important factor to help users protect themselves from increasingly sophisticated tricks.
