Scammers are becoming increasingly prevalent across social media platforms. According to a new report from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, more than 95,000 people reported $770 million in losses due to fraud on social media in 2021. This accounts for 25% of reported fraud cases over the year.
Only 5,000 people reported $42 million USD in scams in 2017, so these new numbers represent an eighteenfold increase in reported losses over a five-year period. And counter to the notion that the elderly are most at risk of being conned, data showed that people 18 to 39 were more than twice as likely to lose money as older adults.
The FTC said that many of these scams take the form of bogus investment opportunities, often with transactions via cryptocurrency. Following investment scams, the second most profitable form of fraud stems from those who lost money to an online romance.
Many reports also came from those who simply lost money online shopping. The victims saw an ad online and placed an order, but never received the merchandise and were never refunded. Nearly 9 out of 10 people named Facebook or Instagram as the social media platform on which the con took place.
The FTC advises that social media users take measures to stay safe against scams, such as opting out of targeted advertising when the platform allows.
In other tech news, OpenSea has set a new record with $5 billion USD in monthly NFT sales.
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