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In his overwhelming grief, Simon sought companionship online, like so many other lonely widows and widowers. Almost immediately he met Emily. But over the next few months, Emily, who Simon realized too late was a fake, stole $800,000 from him.<\/p>\n
And that was just the beginning.<\/p>\n
Simon was stuck paying back $185,000 he had borrowed, and tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes on money he had withdrawn and lost. He tried to report the crime to his local police and the FBI, he said, but nothing came of it. Instead, he was contacted by yet another scammer \u2014 offering to connect him with the Secret Service to recoup his losses in exchange for even more money.<\/p>\n
Like Simon, virtually every American has been targeted by scammers in some way,\u00a0exclusive new polling data shows. Scams in the U.S. have surged to a record high,\u00a0causing billions in losses for Americans.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. still lags behind some other countries in tackling the problem, holding financial and social media companies responsible and regulating the cryptocurrency scammers rely on, an investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE found. And although both the Trump administration and Congress are pursuing new options, victims still have little recourse and sometimes end up losing even more.<\/p>\n
In interviews with almost five dozen victims, AP and FRONTLINE found that many faced ridicule and stigma from friends and family, mounting pressure from banks and lenders, additional taxes, dismissive law enforcement and neglect from a government they believed would protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens after the scam might even be worse than the scam itself,\u201d said Erin West, a former prosecutor and founder of the nonprofit Operation Shamrock that provides support for victims of online scams. \u201cIt\u2019s a travesty.\u201d<\/p>\n
While victims say they seldom get any answers from authorities, AP\/FRONTLINE found these crimes can be traceable. With the help of leaked documents and cryptowallet addresses, AP\/FRONTLINE tracked Emily and Simon\u2019s stolen funds to a notorious scam compound halfway around the world in Myanmar with thousands of victims.<\/p>\n
Simon was stunned to see Emily\u2019s fake profile and hundreds of pages of conversations he thought were encrypted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a fool I was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Today, much of the Myanmar compound where his scam originated lies in rubble, destroyed by local authorities. Yet many of the illicit operations simply moved, new sites opened immediately, and Simon is no closer to getting his money back.<\/p>\n
He asked not to be identified by his full name because he is too ashamed to tell most of his family about the crime. Local police and the FBI declined to comment on the case.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The police) told me right away that, you know, \u2018You have to kiss that money goodbye,\u2019\u201d he said, fighting back tears. \u201cAlready I experienced something very bad and now I have to pay for the consequences on top of it, and see my money evaporate all over again. You lose two ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The size of the global scam industry is staggering.<\/p>\n
Americans reported\u00a0a record $15.9 billion in losses last year to the Federal Trade Commission, a 25% increase from 2024. And such estimates are likely a massive undercount because most scam victims are too embarrassed to report their crimes.<\/p>\n
The FTC estimates that real losses in 2024 were close to $200 billion; that\u2019s $550 million every day just in the U.S.<\/p>\n
The ballooning costs are fueled by huge advances in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. AI allows scammers to work at a previously unimaginable scale and level of sophistication, and cryptocurrency, often used in investment scams, is a form of digital cash that can be hard to trace to its real owners.<\/p>\n
No one is immune, the AP\/FRONTLINE investigation found. Ninety-eight percent of Americans suspect they have been targeted by scammers, many every day, according to a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three in 10 said they have personally lost money or information to scams.<\/p>\n
AP\/FRONTLINE interviewed 58 people in the United States who lost money to cyberscams, aged 32 to 90, across all races and income levels. They said they lost several thousand dollars to $4 million each and included doctors, IT professionals, academics with advanced degrees and people just trying to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
All said they felt alone and confused afterward. When they did report the crimes to law enforcement, many felt abandoned by a lack of support. Several victims said they contemplated suicide. Two attempted it.<\/p>\n
The only one to get any money back won a rare settlement from her bank, not from her scammer.<\/p>\n
Instead, scam victims sometimes owe additional money through bank fees and tax bills. The\u00a0IRS\u00a0often demands that retirees, including scam victims, pay taxes on any funds they withdrew from tax-deferred accounts like their retirement savings.<\/p>\n
Before 2018, victims of theft or fraud could sometimes deduct losses incurred from their taxable income. But under a provision of the Trump administration\u2019s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent in 2025, personal losses from many common scams are not eligible for tax breaks. That means victims can owe taxes after money was stolen from them.<\/p>\n
Retired nurse Susan Bivins said she was tricked into draining her retirement accounts and sending more than $200,000 to a scammer pretending to be a federal agent. The FBI and local police did not help, she said.<\/p>\n
Then her tax bill arrived. She owed the Internal Revenue Service $80,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to drive off a cliff,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how I was going to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bivins sold her home and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment. She is still paying off her tax bill, selling handmade quilts.<\/p>\n
The FBI said in a statement that it takes scams and fraud seriously but cannot comment on individual cases to protect privacy. Local police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n
A law before Congress, the\u00a0Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act, would reinstate an allowance for victims to deduct their losses. AARP fraud prevention lead Kathy Stokes urged Congress earlier this year to help scam victims who are \u201cstuck with a bill they don\u2019t deserve and have no way to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially they\u2019re being revictimized by the U.S. government,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n
Banks also sometimes blame people who are scammed instead of seeing them as crime victims, or even accuse them of being complicit. Victims described having their accounts abruptly frozen or canceled, along with demands for repayment on loans and legal fees.<\/p>\n
Debra Fox in Colorado lost $58,000 in a romance scam, she said. In a meeting with her bank branch, she said, a representative told her that she would be held responsible for anything fraudulent linked to her own accounts and forced to pay any legal fees.<\/p>\n
She was in shock for 48 hours, terrified that the little she had left would vanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, I have no control over this process,\u201d she said. \u201cThe crime was horrific enough\u2026 but it\u2019s what happened next that was really unbelievable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her local bank branch declined to comment on her case.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, American Bankers Association Chair Kenneth Kelly said banks spend \u201ctime, money and significant resources\u201d trying to stop fraud, which usually refers to unauthorized transactions. But under current U.S. law, financial institutions are rarely liable for transactions their customers authorize.<\/p>\n
There are rare workarounds. For example, under new legal protections, a theft from a senior citizen in California might fall under the definition of financial elder abuse.<\/p>\n
Alice Lin, now 83, was the only victim AP\/FRONTLINE interviewed to get some money back, after she sued her bank, citing this law.<\/p>\n
Over their lifetimes, Lin and her husband had put aside a nest egg of about $720,000. After he died, she struck up what she thought was an online friendship with a man who\u2019d also lost a spouse.<\/p>\n
Her new friend Justin convinced her to take out money from her bank and invest it in cryptocurrency platforms.<\/p>\n
At first, her financial statements showed big wins. But when Justin encouraged her to ask her daughter for a loan to invest more, her family realized it was a scam.<\/p>\n
Lin sued JPMorgan Chase for failing to protect an elderly citizen and flag the extraordinarily large and unusual transfers. Earlier this year, they settled for an undisclosed amount, according to her lawyers.<\/p>\n
JPMorgan Chase said it has multiple layers of scam protection, from bankers who asked Lin about her transactions to written warnings. Settling the lawsuit \u201cwas a business decision weighed with the cost of litigation on this matter,\u201d said the bank in a written statement.<\/p>\n
Lin had been targeted by a sophisticated criminal network that ran dozens of different scams and took in at least $800 million from January 2022 to September 2024, blockchain analysis TRM Labs did for AP\/FRONTLINE showed. This industrialization of scams makes it even harder for victims to get their money back, said Ari Redford, global head of policy at TRM Labs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not built out systems in the U.S. in many respects to not only alert victims but to really do restitution in a meaningful way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lin said the grief and embarrassment made her think about taking her own life. But she was infuriated by a question her scammer asked her long after she\u2019d stopped responding.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you still alive?\u201d said the message. Lin shuddered as she read it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself, \u2018I\u2019m alive and I\u2019m going to fight back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. is taking steps to improve cooperation with the private sector on fighting scams but \u2014 unlike a growing number of other countries \u2014 has stopped short of requiring companies to do more to protect consumers or face financial penalties.<\/p>\n
Eight in 10 Americans across political lines said the U.S. government isn\u2019t doing enough to protect them against scams, according to a new Gallup survey. And more than half said financial institutions, social media and tech companies and the federal government should also share responsibility, new AP-NORC polling shows.<\/p>\n
Since late 2024, financial services companies in the United Kingdom have generally had to reimburse clients tricked into sending money to scammers, giving them an incentive to invest in prevention measures. The downside has been slower bank transfers, the need for more employees and sometimes a conversation to explain why a customer might want to transfer money.<\/p>\n
The European Union is also rolling out rules that make financial institutions potentially liable for scammed funds if they don\u2019t put in adequate fraud protections. And the EU\u2019s\u00a0Digital Services Act, which was passed in 2022, requires platforms to quickly act on reported scam content and take broader steps to reduce online fraud.<\/p>\n
In the UK, trained social workers are sometimes sent to the homes of scam victims to address the emotional fallout.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t ever say to a victim, \u2018Why did you fall for a mugging? Why did you fall for a burglary?\u2019\u201d said Louise Baxter, who serves on the Home Office Joint Fraud Task Force. \u201cIt\u2019s secondary victimization, from a law enforcement perspective and a societal perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
New regulations in Australia also spread the responsibility for preventing scams. Financial institutions, telecommunications companies and digital platforms in Australia can be fined or forced to compensate victims if they don\u2019t do enough to prevent and respond to scam activity.<\/p>\n
Singapore\u2019s protections are among the strictest. Under the government\u2019s Shared Responsibility Framework, banks and telecom companies may have to repay victims of certain phishing scams if they fail to implement required safeguards. The country\u2019s Protection From Scams Act passed last year allows police to temporarily restrict bank transfers of someone who they believe to be a victim. Further, staff from banks and e-commerce platforms physically sit in the same office as police in their national anti-scam center.<\/p>\n
The U.S. makes piecemeal attempts to teach law enforcement agents how to respond to scams, but requirements vary across agencies. And in the U.S., victims are generally only reimbursed if the money is taken from their accounts without their authorization, not if they were tricked into approving the withdrawals. U.S. law also offers social media companies broad protections from liability for the content they carry, even scams.<\/p>\n
There are global differences when it comes to cryptocurrency as well.<\/p>\n
China bans crypto-related businesses, while the European Union requires licensing, consumer protections and broad disclosures. But while the Trump administration has backed some cryptocurrency regulation, it has also promised to halt \u201caggressive enforcement actions and regulatory overreach\u201d to promote innovation. And\u00a0the GENIUS Act\u00a0signed by President Donald Trump last year to regulate some cryptocurrencies did not require companies to return stolen funds to fraud victims \u2013 a gap that consumer advocates, prosecutors and some lawmakers have criticized.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officials say it\u2019s harder to track, freeze or recover funds because institutional banking safeguards largely do not apply to cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n
Unlike bank deposits, crypto assets are not backed by federal insurance, and so if an exchange fails, the money can be lost. Banks also require customers to provide identification, social security numbers and account details when moving cash, while cryptocurrency transfers can obscure the identities of those involved. Most significantly, many cryptocurrency exchanges operate across borders and through offshore entities where U.S. laws may not apply.<\/p>\n
Locating stolen cryptocurrency takes time and money. Returning it is even more complicated. A cottage industry of attorneys specializing in tracing cryptocurrency is emerging, but they still need buy-in from overworked officials to obtain warrants.<\/p>\n
This means that even if people can locate their stolen funds, it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019ll get them back.<\/p>\n
After Brian Glick lost $575,000, he called the FBI, an elder abuse hotline, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York State Attorney General\u2019s office, he said. He filed complaints at IC3.org and FightCyberCrime.org. He collected thousands of screenshots as evidence and turned them over to federal investigators. He even kept talking to his scammer to draw out more information.<\/p>\n
But when the FBI went to cryptocurrency company Tether to try and freeze and claw back funds linked to Glick\u2019s investment, Tether said it could not. The FBI agent asked Tether to reconsider, according to email exchanges shared with AP and FRONTLINE.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respectfully request that Tether take a second look at the below information in regards to freezing funds from bad actors \u2026\u201d said the email.<\/p>\n
After being given more details, including Glick\u2019s wallet addresses, Tether told AP\/FRONTLINE that Glick\u2019s funds were moved and commingled with other funds just hours after the money was stolen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time Tether was contacted, the two addresses contained a significant amount of unrelated, unattributed funds belonging to other users,\u201d a statement from the company said. It said Tether could not \u201carbitrarily freeze funds of unrelated users without proper process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told AP\/FRONTLINE that there are countless examples of their work with law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that there is no company, even in the banking industry, in the traditional financial industry, that is so helpful as us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Officials at the FBI and Secret Service said Tether works closely with law enforcement to combat crimes related to cryptocurrency. In a joint initiative, Tether, TRM Labs and TRON, a blockchain network, say they have frozen over $450 million in illicit funds worldwide since 2024.<\/p>\n
Glick was furious.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many victims of these cybercrimes,\u201d Glick said. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t get our money back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. government is waking up to the threat.<\/p>\n
Congress is now considering more than a dozen bills to prevent scams. One would establish a centralized website for complaints, ReportScams.gov. Another would require disclosures on deepfakes and other AI-generated audio and visual content.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department in November unveiled a\u00a0strike force\u00a0to cut off access of Southeast Asian operations to U.S. infrastructure, pursue criminal networks behind the scams and seize stolen funds. The Treasury has levied sanctions in Southeast Asia, and Myanmar and Cambodia have staged high-profile crackdowns on scam compounds.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department\u2019s Scam Center Strike Force claimed on its website this summer that it had restrained $832 million in\u00a0cryptocurrency\u00a0from Chinese transnational criminals. But a spokesperson told AP\/FRONTLINE it was unable to go into any specifics about each seizure, where the funds are held or what, if anything, has been returned to victims.<\/p>\n
Trump also signed an executive order in March directing the attorney general to prioritize the prosecution of scammers and to submit a recommendation for a program to restore money to victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump is unleashing every available tool to stop criminal networks that exploit vulnerable Americans through cyber fraud and scams,\u201d the White House said in a statement to AP\/FRONTLINE.<\/p>\n
However, advocates say funding hasn\u2019t flowed to the federal agencies tasked with combating scams, investigating cybercrime, and developing a cohesive plan for attacking the problem. And the fledgling efforts to help victims get money back aren\u2019t keeping up with the tsunami of those who have lost it.<\/p>\n
At least 13 federal agencies touch on different aspects of these crimes, according to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office. Seto Bagdoyan, who runs the office\u2019s Forensic Audits and Investigative Service, said this piecemeal approach results in a sluggish strategy that \u201cfalls short.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no government-wide estimate of the money lost to scams, no common definition of scams, and no national strategy for combating them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
FBI Financial Crimes Section assistant section chief Rebecca Keithley, who retired earlier this year, said tens of billions of dollars flow out of the U.S. economy through scams. The FBI\u2019s Operation Level Up, an effort to identify victims being defrauded and call them to intervene, has stopped about 8,500 people from falling for scams over almost two years, she said.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s a small fraction of the sheer volume of victims. The FBI said it receives nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints a day on average through the\u00a0IC3.gov\u00a0online portal for reporting cybercrime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an enormous problem, and one that the FBI is prioritizing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Donna Gregory, retired FBI unit chief with the IC3, worked on the portal for 23 years, from its conception in 2000. Gregory said the loss threshold for what law enforcement will pursue varies by jurisdiction, and that the FBI is only able to investigate roughly 10-12 % of cases reported on IC3.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe empathy you learn to sort of ignore because you would drive yourself crazy,\u201d said Gregory. \u201cAll these victims saying, \u2018I\u2019ve lost my life savings, I don\u2019t know what to do.\u2019\u2026 \u201cMy grandmother committed suicide because she lost everything\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m going to commit suicide,\u2019 and it\u2019s like, which one do I have to pick?\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Scott, a casino dealer in Arizona, was scammed out of $400,000 by a man on a dating site, she said. She added that she went four times in person to her local FBI office, begging for help \u2014 but was told all she could do was file a complaint through IC3.<\/p>\n
She did. But she heard nothing back, she said, not even an acknowledgment of receipt. She began to panic, and searched for help online.<\/p>\n
Scott found three companies claiming to have a direct line to the FBI, each promising to recover her funds. Out of desperation she hired them all, she said, handing over a total of $23,000.<\/p>\n
None of the companies were real. Scott was forced to sell her home to cover her debts. She is still paying off the $20,000 tax bill she received after draining her retirement accounts, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just a small fish in a big pond,\u201d Scott said. \u201cAll I wanted was to talk to someone and get help, but I\u2019m nobody to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
Mendoza reported from Europe, Asia and North America; Linderman, a former Associated Press investigative reporter, reported from Baltimore; and Kinetz reported from Rome; Lisbon, Portugal, and Washington, D.C. Huizhong Wu in Bangkok, Wisdom Howell and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux in Washington, D.C., and Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes the documentary \u201cScammed,\u201d premiering Tuesday, Sept. 29, on PBS and online.<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s\u00a0standards\u00a0for working with philanthropies, a\u00a0list\u00a0of supporters and funded coverage areas at\u00a0AP.org.<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
Contact AP\u2019s global investigative team at\u00a0Investigative@ap.org\u00a0or\u00a0https:\/\/www.ap.org\/tips\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Reported #scams #reach #high #billion #estimates #reach #billion #annually<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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