Consumers in 42 countries lost about $442bn to scams in 12 months, but the figure is not based on filed complaints. The estimate comes from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) and rests on a survey of 46,000 adults, run with Feedzai, a financial fraud prevention firm. It shows the scale of the problem, not an exact count of losses.
The same data show that 57% of adults worldwide came across a scam in the past 12 months, and 23% lost money. Some reviews describe these adults as "scammed", but GASA's press release says "experienced a scam".
Estimate of victims' losses
The estimate covers victims' losses, including scams that were never reported. It is not the criminals' income, and it is not an audited account. The survey alone cannot show whether scams have really risen or whether people simply mention them more often.
Feedzai's pages do not say how the answers were turned into a dollar sum, and only GASA members can read the full report. Some sources say the period is the 12 months before the March 2025 survey, while others call it calendar 2025.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime puts the yearly profit of South Asian scam networks at just under $40bn. That is a different measure, and it cannot be compared directly with consumer losses from a survey.
Scams are most common in South America, Africa and Oceania, where up to one in four adults has lost money. Among those surveyed, 72% in South America and 73% in Oceania came across a scam.
Marketplace, investment and "unexpected money" scams
Marketplace scams are the most common. GASA says 54% of those affected met them, while investment scams and "unexpected money" schemes each hit 48%.
In a marketplace scam, a buyer pays for goods or a subscription that never arrives. In an investment scam, the fraudster presses a person to put money into a "rare chance" with quick profit. In an "unexpected money" scheme, the victim pays a made-up fee to get a prize, lottery win or inheritance.
In 64% of cases, it was all over within a day of first contact. In Argentina and Brazil, more than half of scams took just minutes. About 74% of victims reported the scam. Of the rest, 48% thought they had to sort it out themselves, and 38% found the process complex or slow.
Phishing for about four cents an email
Phishing is a fake message that poses as a bank, a firm or an acquaintance to get a person's data or money. The costliest kind is spear phishing, where the email is written for one person after research.
Researchers at Harvard University, including Bruce Schneier, automated the whole process with a language model that gathers details on the target and writes the emails itself. It found accurate and useful information on 88% of participants, and each email cost about four cents.
In a test with 101 participants, 54% clicked on an email written entirely by AI, the same share as for an email from a human expert. For an ordinary mass email, 12% clicked. The authors calculate that an attacker's profit could rise up to 50 times with a large audience. Earlier work by the same team found that automation cuts costs by more than 95%. These are lab results, not data from real attackers.
An analysis of the scam industry with Chinese links describes how AI makes it cheaper and harder to stop. Its tools are sold as separate services: stolen data, fake profiles, websites and money laundering. The analysis gives no price for AI phishing. There are specific cases of voice and video cloning, where a familiar voice or face is no longer proof that the person on the other end is who they seem.
Spelling mistakes are no longer a reliable sign. Some 27% of adults check for them, and GASA says they are less and less useful because AI writes fluently. Other signs are safer:
- pressure to hurry, keep a secret or pay at once
- a fee you must pay to get a prize, inheritance or winnings
- a promise of quick, guaranteed profit from an investment
- a request for a transfer after weeks of online contact or a new "relationship"
- a request to move to another messaging app
- payment by gift cards, cryptocurrency or a transfer to a stranger
If someone asks for money by voice or video, confirm it through another channel, for example by calling a number you know. Hold off on a large transfer to a new recipient until you have checked who they are. Check a shop somewhere other than its own website. Report a suspicious case to your bank and the platform at once.
For 2026, GASA is calling for steps that stop scams before the money is sent, with a bigger role for banks, phone firms and tech platforms.