FTC States That Scams Cost U.S. Consumers $158.3 Billion in One Year

This report summarizes FTC findings that U.S. consumers lost an estimated $158.3B to scams in 2023, driven largely by investment/pig-butchering, fake jobs and vendors, tech support, romance, and government/business imposter schemes, with underreporting (about 2%) indicating the problem is even larger; it also notes younger people are more frequently victimized while older victims tend to lose more money. The author recommends Human Risk Management programs and offers a core heuristic: treat unexpected messages that ask you to do something new as high risk and verify via a trusted alternate channel before acting.