‘Scams are getting so much more efficient’: New study warns over half of Americans hit by fraud in 2025 – and the figure is only going to get worse | Daily Reports Online
- More than half of consumers encounter scam attempts monthly, F-Secure finds
- Many think they could spot a scam – two-fifths of them went on to be victims
- Consumers are pointing toward telecoms companies when it comes to protection
New research from F-Secure claims online scams have now reached more than half of consumers, with 56% of people saying they had encountered such attempts at least once per month in 2025.
The data, cited in the company’s latest Scam Intelligence & Impacts Report based on a survey of 10,000 consumers, has revealed that half (52%) of all victims also lose money when compromised in an attack.
In fact, the number of victims losing money as a result of scams more than doubled compared with the year before.
Humans vs AI
The news for consumers is a mixed bag, with F-Secure noting that scam exposure is no longer increasing as rapidly as it did. However, scammers are getting better at monetizing attacks, making the implications potentially worse.
While half the population is being hit by scams monthly, the data estimates that 40 million Americans also fell victims to scams over the past 12 months. Previously in 2024, Featurespace found that almost 80 million Americans had lost money to scams in the preceding half-decade.
According to the data, attackers are also focusing more on bigger payouts rather than low-level phishing attempts. Fake invoice scams, investment fraud and banking scams have proven popular over the past year.
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence is credited with boosting many attacks, offering cybercriminals opportunities for better targeting, closer impersonation and faster turnaround from concept to attack.
F-Secure also noted that many now turn to AI chatbots for information without verifying output authenticity, making them more vulnerable in an AI-first era. The company observed ChatGPT sharing scammer phone numbers with users when thousands of flights were cancelled due to winter storms.
Staying safe
Looking ahead, the company also worries about a rise in fraudulent stores with more consumers turning to AI for their online shopping.
That’s without even considering that scammers are also leaning on AI to help them improve the quality of their so-called ‘bait’, including personalized emails, synthetic voices and fake images and videos.
Confidence in spotting them remains high, with more than two in three (69%) believing they could spot a scam, yet 43% of those individuals also fell victim to scams.
“As AI increasingly shapes both how decisions are made and how scams are carried out, it’s becoming harder for people to distinguish what’s real from what’s not,” President and CEO Timo Laaksonen wrote.
The FTC recently warned that social media as an attack vector is increasingly important for criminals, with money lost increasing eightfold between 2020 and 2025. In 2025, around one-third (30%) of all American citizens who lost money to a scam said it started on social media.
Demographically, younger consumers are most likely to face the highest number of attack attempts, possibly due to their increased online activity, while older generations will typically lose the most money if successfully attacked.
As for who the responsibility lies with to protect consumers, 93% agree it’s important for telecom providers to offer protections and four-fifths (82%) even say this could influence which provider they choose to go with.
Laaksonen calls for “a move beyond traditional protection toward building true resilience and trust across the entire digital experience.”
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