Americans are inundated with suspected scams. New polling shows why few
victims report them
[June 25, 2026]
By AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a
daily basis — and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal
information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research in February, highlights the obstacle course that U.S.
adults navigate daily as they screen calls, ignore messages or try to
puzzle out if that urgent request from their cellphone provider is
legitimate.
A separate survey conducted by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance that
was provided exclusively to the AP found that last year alone, about 1
in 10 U.S. adults said they or someone else from their household was
deceived by a scammer into losing money or providing access to a
financial account, with nearly half saying they lost more than $500.
That leaves many Americans feeling like they’re constantly at risk of
falling for a scam, often without a sense of recourse. In both surveys,
few victims said they reported the scam to the federal government or
local law enforcement. Many victims didn't report the scam, Gallup
found, because they didn't think it would make a difference in getting
money back.
“You've got to be pretty sophisticated these days,” said Adam Pratter,
42. He has run into problems on dating apps — and once ended up sending
money to a person who claimed they were overseas because of a military
deployment and needed money to buy food. He realized it was a scam when
the requests didn't stop.
Pratter thinks banks and social media companies have a responsibility to
help people who have been scammed, but also believes the government
needs to do more.
“If federal regulation wanted to step in and make deals with these
companies to get these people their money back, they could,” he said.
For many Americans, scam attempts are constant
Americans are flooded with scam attempts, according to both surveys.
More than half, 58%, of U.S. adults in the AP-NORC poll said they
receive daily text messages, phone calls, emails, online messages or
online advertisements that they suspect are scams, while the Gallup
survey found last year that about 4 in 10 experienced attempted scams on
a daily basis.
Porschel Smith, 22, gets multiple scam calls every day, and receives
even more scam emails. Some of the scams are easy for her to identify.
“They mention different types of programs that I know are nonexistent,”
she said.
But sometimes she ends up engaging with the scammer before realizing
that something is wrong. “Some of them hack your account and pretend as
if they're someone that you know,” she said. “But then I get to asking
questions and realize they're scams.”
Older people are more likely to say they receive scam attempts daily,
according to the AP-NORC poll. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults ages 60 and
older say they are contacted by a suspected scammer at least once a day,
compared to about 4 in 10 Americans under 30.
Among those who have received suspected scam attempts, the AP-NORC poll
found that outreach involving package shipments or banking were among
the most common methods. About 4 in 10 people who were contacted by
scammers say at least one of the attempts they received over the past
few years were through Facebook or Facebook Messenger, while about 2 in
10 said they were on WhatsApp, and a similar share said they were on
Instagram.
Around 30% of US adults say they've been scammed personally
The impact of scams is far-reaching. About half, 51%, of U.S. adults
know someone personally — such as a friend or family member — who has
ever lost money as the result of a scam, the AP-NORC poll found, while
about 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they have personally been scammed into
giving away money or personal information.
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Options to use the Zelle payments network are seen on a mobile
banking app in New York, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison,
File)
The Gallup survey found that about 1 in 10 U.S. adults said they or
a member of their household was scammed out of money in 2025, with
6% saying they had been personally scammed.
About half of people whose household experienced scams last year
reported losing between $125 and $2,000, according to Gallup.
About 1 in 10 U.S. adults have been scammed multiple times, Gallup
found.
“It's not easy. They know what they're doing," said Towonna Harris,
50. Her son was once contacted by scammers who promised to give him
money for tuition if he authorized a nominal credit card charge,
which quickly spiraled into a much bigger set of charges.
She's experienced other kinds of scams on a smaller scale, too. “I
ordered some stuff. I never got it,” she said. “I thought it was a
legitimate company. And then I saw all these reviews saying it was a
scam.”
Few scam victims report to law enforcement
Virtually all U.S. adults believe that scams pose a “major” or
“minor” threat to individuals in the U.S., but few think the
government is doing enough to solve the problem. About 8 in 10
Americans say the government is “definitely” or “probably” doing too
little to prevent scams, according to the Gallup survey, including
large majorities of Republicans and Democrats.
When people are scammed, both surveys found that victims are much
likelier to reach out to financial institutions than the federal
government or local law enforcement. About half, 55%, of people who
were scammed last year reported to a bank, credit union or other
financial institution, the Gallup poll found, but only 18% contacted
state or local law enforcement, while 13% reported to either federal
law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.
Many victims don't make a report because they don't think it will
help, or don't know where to go, Gallup found. Among people who were
scammed in 2025, 75% said they didn't report because they thought it
wouldn't make a difference in getting their money back, while 58%
were uncertain where to report.
More broadly, Americans express very low confidence that they'd know
how to report a scam to the government if they needed to. According
to the AP-NORC poll, most Americans, 55%, say they are “extremely”
or “very” confident that if they were scammed, they’d know how to
report it to banks or credit card companies, but only about
one-quarter are similarly confident that they’d know how to report
to federal or state law enforcement.
Only about one-third of U.S. adults said they would know where to
make a report if they lost $5,000 in a scam today, Gallup found.
Max Anderson, 23, said that his parents are small business owners
who were the victims of a costly and complex scam. “A scammer
successfully imitated one of their employees and changed their
direct deposit information. This went on for about 3 months. It went
to $15,000,” he said.
Eventually, Anderson's father got help from the FBI, he said.
“I do like that the government stepped in with my parents, and I
feel like that's the way it should be,” he said. “It's a big enough
problem at this point that it falls to the government and companies
to do something about it.”
___
Associated Press reporters Mary Rajkumar, Juliet Linderman and Erika
Kinetz contributed to this report. Northwestern University Medill
School of Journalism student Molly Wallace contributed to this
report.
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