By Shefali Kapadia
Social media platforms, especially Facebook, have become a hotbed for payment scams, putting financial institutions in a position of playing the last line of defense to stop money transfers from a victim to a criminal.
The Federal Trade Commission tallied the toll on consumers last month in a new report: $2.1 billion in losses in 2025 for consumers who said they were victimized by a scam that started on social media. Consumers reported losing more money to scams that originated on Facebook than on any other social media platform, the report said.
A Consumer Federation of America report this year cited similar earlier findings. Among online platforms, 57% of reported scams were on Facebook, according to CFA’s March report, which cited 2024 Better Business Bureau data.
“Facebook is the worst in terms of safety for people from scams,” said Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
SHEFALI KAPADIA 