Almost 80 million U.S. consumers have lost money to scams over the last five years, according to a new report commissioned by global fraud and financial crime prevention company, Featurespace and conducted by PYMNTS Intelligence on the state of financial crime and scams in the US.

Three in ten (30%) U.S. consumers say they or their households suffered losses after being targeted by scammers. The victims lost an average of $545 with nearly three in ten (27%) losing between $1,000 and $9,999 and more than one in ten (12%) suffering over $10,000 in losses.

The research reveals that the most common type of scam was identity theft, affecting a quarter (24%) of victims. Other prevalent types of scams include gift card scams (affecting 19% of victims), eCommerce including fake websites and fraudulent listings (16%) and debt collection scams (15%).

This national study examined the financial impact of scams on those affected by them, and the consumer’s view of the bank’s role in preventing them across a census-balanced panel of 10,013 US consumers between July 26 and August 26 2024.

The report finds that romance scams had the largest financial impact with average losses of almost $2,000 followed by investment scams which cost victims an average of $1,104. Romance scams also tend to be longer in duration, with scam victims making an average of 3.6 payments — nearly twice as many as other schemes.

On a positive note, the research indicates consumers are able to recover some of their losses from their financial providers. Nearly seven in ten (69%) consumers who reported the scam to their bank recovered a portion of lost funds, with three quarters (74%) of those who filed a claim with their credit card issuer recouping some of their losses.

That said, despite often recovering some or all of their losses, over half (54%) of scam victims said they considered switching banks following a scam incident, with 30% actually doing so. Consumers are also aware of the role continued advances in technology can play in safeguarding their accounts against scams – six in ten (59%) scam victims named integrating fraud detection and monitoring technologies as the most important step to boost consumer protections.

Martina King, CEO at Featurespace, comments: “With millions of U.S. consumers hit with scams over the last few years, financial institutions must continue to enhance consumer protections to fight back against the rising threat of fraud and financial crime. 

“Tackling scams should be focused on prevention rather than cure: using technology to identify and prevent scams in real-time by offering increased security measures. Using adaptive behavioural data and artificial intelligence allows financial institutions to protect their clients – stopping fraudulent transactions in milliseconds - without impacting the customer experience or stopping authentic transactions from taking place.”