FTC: social platforms now a primary vector for consumer losses
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), drawing on reports to its Consumer Sentinel Network, found that social media was the origin of nearly one-third of consumer-reported monetary losses to scams in 2025, totaling more than $2.1 billion. The commission described this as roughly an eightfold rise in social-media-driven losses since 2020 and said social media now produces far more in losses than any other method scammers use to contact consumers.
Facebook ahead of other platforms across nearly every age group
According to the FTC's reporting, Facebook was the single platform linked to greater reported monetary losses than any other social network for all age groups except those 80 and over — who were mainly targeted via phone calls. WhatsApp and Instagram ranked a distant second and third in reports to the FTC. The agency also said people reported losing far more money to Facebook-originated scams than to scams that began by text message or email combined.
Meta deploys warnings, chat and group protections, and mass takedowns
Meta introduced new anti-scam protections across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger in response to the FTC's findings and the wider rise in social-media scams. The company said it is testing friend-request warnings that flag suspicious requests based on signals such as a profile location that does not match the user's region or a small number of mutual connections.
In October, Meta rolled out a more advanced scam-detection system for suspicious chats that will warn users when a new contact sends a potentially scammy message. It also introduced WhatsApp warnings advising users to share their screen only with people they trust when starting video calls with unknown contacts. Separately, in August WhatsApp added a security feature to help users spot potential scams when being added to a group chat by unknown contacts.
Meta reported substantial enforcement activity in 2025: more than 159 million scam ads were removed, and over 10.9 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram linked to criminal scam operations were taken down.
FBI IC3 numbers show wider cyber-enabled losses alongside social-media fraud
The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, as cited by the source material, recorded over 1 million complaints submitted to its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) during the year. Those complaints were linked to nearly $21 billion in losses from a range of cyber-enabled crimes, including investment scams, business email compromise, tech support fraud, and data breaches.
What this means for end users, Meta, and law enforcement
- End users: The FTC advises practical steps to reduce risk—limit who can view your posts and contacts on social media, avoid letting someone you only met online influence investment decisions, and research any company before purchasing by searching the company name alongside terms like "scam" or "complaint."
- Meta: The company is responding with layered detection and user warnings across Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp, and with large-scale removals of ads and accounts; those actions are the platform-level complements to the FTC's consumer guidance.
- Law enforcement and federal reporting channels: The FBI's IC3 recorded more than 1 million complaints tied to nearly $21 billion in losses, underscoring that social-media-originated scams sit alongside broader, costly cyber-enabled frauds captured in federal complaint systems.
The figures released by the FTC and the FBI paint a clear if stark picture: social media is now a principal channel for financial scams in the United States, accounting for nearly $2.1 billion in reported losses in 2025 and a marked increase in reach since 2020. Platforms are deploying warnings and removal programs at scale, federal complaint systems are logging large overall losses, and regulators are urging straightforward, user-level precautions. Whether these combined steps will blunt the eightfold rise the FTC documents is a question the public and policymakers will be watching as enforcement, detection, and consumer education continue.
