A Gallup survey reveals that millions of Americans were targeted by scammers last year, ultimately leading to tens of billions of dollars in losses.
In the United States of Scams: The Financial and Emotional Fallout report, Gallup says that about 6% of US adults, or about 15.1 million Americans, lost money to scammers last year.
“Six percent of Americans report being personally scammed in 2025, with those scams costing U.S. adults an estimated $68 billion — more than four times what was reported to federal authorities in FTC complaint data in 2025.”
According to Gallup, about one in four Americans have been targeted by scammers at some point in their adult lives, with one in 10 having been scammed more than once.
“Scam attempts are pervasive: About four in 10 (41%) Americans are contacted by an attempted scam on a daily basis.”
Among the victims, 46% say they experienced moderate financial hardship after being scammed, including 21% who say the hardship they experienced was severe.
“Lower-income households were most likely to be meaningfully impacted, with almost six in 10 (58%) of these households saying the scam created a severe (28%) or moderate (30%) financial hardship.”
Gallup also details the most common ways scammers get in touch with their victims.
“The most common entry points for scams were online purchases, phone calls and social media. Scam victims report that most of the communications with the scammer took place via phone calls, text messages and email.”
The survey finds that most scams are reported to banks but less often to federal agencies and law enforcement.
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