How Widespread are Scams? We Don’t Know
Should the U.S. government adopt a more unified approach to countering scams? A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests so.
Scams manipulate Americans out of billions of dollars a year. Based on 2021 data, the U.S. Treasury estimated $200 billion in impersonation-related suspicious activity. The FBI estimated that in 2023 it received more than 589,000 scam-related complaints, resulting in losses of $10.55 billion. But there is no government-wide estimate of the scope of scams, the money lost to them, a common definition, or a national strategy for combatting them—these gaps make consumer protection more difficult, the GAO said.
At least 13 federal agencies—from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the U.S. Secret Service—engage in activities related to countering consumer scams. While some coordinate their efforts with other agencies and consumer associations, the efforts are not coordinated across all agencies, and there is no single, comprehensive, government-wide strategy for guiding these efforts, unlike in other nations like the United Kingdom.
Each department appears to have its own unique approach to scam investigations. For instance, the U.S. Department of the Treasury focuses on scam payments that end up financing terrorist or other illicit organizations. The White House’s scam-related priorities are more focused on transnational organized crime. Meanwhile, the FTC’s efforts are centered on unfair and deceptive acts or practices.
Some agencies view scams purely as financial crimes, while others look at them from a cyber fraud angle.
“The absence of a comprehensive, government-wide strategy poses a risk for potential fragmentation of effort among agencies and overlap of their activities to counter scams, which risks diminishing their efficiency and effectiveness,” the GAO report said.
This also results in some redundancy. Out of 13 agencies, about half said they conduct information-gathering activities like recording or reporting about scam complaints. Most agencies take some sort of action to respond to or investigate scams. Nearly all 13 agencies conduct consumer outreach about scams, and all 13 provide some sort of educational materials or programming about scams to consumers and businesses. But agencies largely do not measure the effectiveness of their education efforts.
“In our prior work, we have found that using evidence, such as program outcomes, can help federal agencies effectively manage and assess the results of their efforts,” according to the GAO report. “Agencies could use measures of knowledge gained to determine the effectiveness of training. For example, agencies could follow up with participants 6 months or a year after the training to ask if they were contacted by a scammer. Agencies could then ask participants who were contacted by a scammer how they used the information provided in the training to identify the scam and what subsequent steps they took. It is important for agencies to ensure that their training efforts incorporate performance measures that can be used to demonstrate contributions that training makes to improving results. In addition, such information would allow agencies to identify aspects of their training program that need improvement.”
The GAO cites one particular example that could use standardization—gift card scam notices in retail shops. Some retailers post a notice on gift card stands educating consumers about scammers requesting payment via gift card and how to stay alert to these schemes. But notices were sometimes placed in easily obscured locations, were too small to be easily noticed, or seemed too complicated for consumers. Researching the most effective size, placement, and content could make these notices more effective.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Fraud Section is in the business of bringing down large-scale fraudsters. And in 2024, business was booming. https://t.co/ztfMPfUc9u
— Security Management (@SecMgmtMag) February 7, 2025
The GAO made 16 recommendations as a result of its review of counter-scam efforts in the U.S. government, including that the FBI should lead an effort to develop and implement a government-wide strategy to counter scams and coordinate related activity in collaboration with the CFPB, FTC, and Treasury.
“This effort should address issues such as a common definition for scams; consumer complaint reporting; related types/granularity/aggregation of data, risks, and responses; a government-wide estimate of this type of crime; and coordination of federal and business activities,” the report said. “As appropriate, and consistent with desired characteristics, a strategy should also define agency roles, responsibilities, and authorities; identify necessary resources; and identify any legislative, regulatory, or administrative changes needed to enable a comprehensive, coordinated response.”
The GAO also recommended that the FTC coordinate with the CFPB and FBI to develop a single estimate of the number of consumers affected by scams and the resulting dollar losses. The report suggested that the CFPB, FTC, and FBI establish metrics to measure the effectiveness of anti-scam training on stakeholder organizations and consumers, including understanding the training’s effect on consumers’ ability to recognize and protect themselves from scams.
