Text message scams skyrocketed to $470M in losses in the US

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network, in 2024, United States consumers reported over $470 million in losses due to text message scams.

That’s five times the amount compared to 2020, when the amount of damages was $86 million. However, since the vast majority of text message fraud is never reported, the actual number of victims is most likely substantially higher.

One of the most prolific text scam varieties deals with fake package delivery problems. In these cases, a scammer pretends to be an employee of the US Postal Service. He sends a message to his victim saying there’s a problem with the delivery of his package. A malicious link in the text message redirects the victim to a bogus website asking him to pay a ‘redelivery fee’. In reality, this is a trick to get hold of his credit card information. A total of 17% of all reported text scams had to do with package delivery problems.

The second-largest text scam fraud revolved around fake job opportunities (15%). Scammers pretend to be recruiters offering a work opportunity. The alleged job is to complete simple repetitive tasks like rating products or apps, but it’s all fake. At some point, people are told to send money to finish their tasks and withdraw their supposed earnings. But people who sent money said that they didn’t get it back.

Other fake text scams revolved around fake fraud alerts (11%), fraudulent notices about unpaid tolls (5%), and ‘wrong number’ scams (4%).

In total, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received over 247,000 reports of text scams last year, which is 25% less reports compared to 2020.

The FTC is asking the public for help to stop text scams. People should forward any fraudulent messages to 7726 to help their wireless provider detect and block similar messages. They could also report malicious messages via Apple iMessage or Google Messages, or directly to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

To make sure you won’t fall victim to text message scams, you should never click on suspicious links or respond to unexpected texts. “If you think it might be legit, contact the company using a phone number or website you know is real. Don’t use the information in the text message,” the FTC recommends.

Lastly, consumers could use filters to block unwanted text messages before they reach them.