Key findings:
- Over half of respondents (56.4%) have been the victim of a financial scam at some point in their lives.
- The average amount of money lost in a financial scam is $874.
- 56.4% of respondents said the scams they experienced were online.
- Over two-fifths of respondents (41.2%) who were scammed took no action to report the scam or recover lost money.
- 55% of those who had been scammed said it negatively affected their trust in financial institutions.
- 96.8% of people were worried about their voice being cloned by AI and used to scam others.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024 – which is a 25% increase since 2023. As technology rapidly changes and becomes more sophisticated, so too do the techniques and strategies employed by fraudsters.
Self Financial’s survey revealed that more than half of respondents (56.4%) have been the victim of a financial scam at some point during their lifetime, with 58.8% stating that they knew they were being scammed right away.
The average amount of money stolen
Of those who had been scammed, 97.3% said the scammers had successfully taken money from them. In other cases, the scam may have involved stolen personal information or an unsuccessful attempt to secure payment.
When asked how much money was lost at any point during the scam, the mean average amount taken from a victim was $874.
Common financial scams
When asked to specify the place (or places) they had come across scams, 56.4% of respondents said it was online. However, more traditional forms of scam still persist, with almost two in five (38.8%) saying they had come across a scam in-person, by mail, or in other printed materials.
|
Most common ways to be scammed |
|
|
Scam type |
Percentage of respondents |
|
Website or online platform |
42.9% |
|
Traditional (e.g. in-person, mail, printed materials) |
38.8% |
|
Social media |
5.0% |
|
Phone call |
4.1% |
|
Advert on social media (e.g. Instagram ads, Facebook ads) |
2.5% |
When asked how money was taken from them in the scam, there were two responses which were by far the most common. Just over two in five people (42.3%) said someone had used their debit or credit card without their permission, closely followed by 40.6% saying that the money had been taken from their bank account.
Dealing with financial scams
When it came to responding to the scam, Americans were split between doing something (58.5%) and doing nothing (41.2%). Of those who had taken action, the most common response was to file a police report (44%), followed by contacting their bank or credit card company (41.8%).
Almost half of people (48%) were able to recover some of their money, and 43.2% were able to recover the full amount. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone had a positive experience trying to recover their money. In fact, 55% of those who had been scammed said it negatively affected their trust in financial institutions.
But considering that most people had successfully recovered at least part of their money, what caused 41.2% of respondents to not report the fraud or attempted fraud? The leading cause was not knowing where to report the scam (48.3%). The next most common reason was embarrassment or shame (46.8%).
AI and financial scams
AI is helping fraudsters create convincing materials to fool potential victims. In one example, a victim picked up an unknown call to hear the voice of her child, who was supposedly “in danger” and needed a $1 million ransom from the kidnappers.
A staggering 96.8% of respondents are worried about the potential of AI cloning their voice for nefarious purposes. 50.9% of those are concerned about this happening now, while the remaining 45.9% are concerned about this happening in the future.
To read the full study, please visit: https://www.self.inc/info/financial-scams-survey/
Methodology
A survey on behalf of Self Financial was conducted in July 2025 and asked 1,132 American adults questions about financial scams. Questions covered how confident they felt managing their finances, their personal experiences with financial scams, the types of financial scams they encountered, and how they responded to the scams.
Sources and demographic data is backed up on the main study page.
About Self Financial
Self Financial (https://www.self.inc/) is a fintech company based in Austin, Texas, dedicated to helping people build credit and save money with a range of financial products.
Source: New Release
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