Author Colleen Huber warns about publishing fraud
USA TODAY’s Claire Mulroy spoke to author Colleen Huber via email about how these scams have permeated the publishing industry for most of her career.
- Many deals on social media that sound too good to be true are just scams.
- New data shows consumers reported $794 million in losses to scams originating on Facebook in 2025, far more than the amount lost to scams originating on other social media platforms last year.
Got a great deal you found on social media? Well, be careful before you pull out your credit card. Eye-catching ads may seem legitimate, but many deals that seem too good to be true are nothing more than scams.
New data shows consumers reported $794 million in losses to scams originating on Facebook in 2025, far more than the amount lost to scams originating on other social media platforms last year.
According to data from the Federal Trade Commission, in 2025 people reported losing far more money to fraud on Facebook alone than they did to text or email scams.
The FTC reported in Data Spotlight that WhatsApp came in second with $425 million in reported losses, followed by $234 million in losses due to scams that started on Instagram, according to consumers. Meta Platforms owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Scammers thrive on social media
According to the FTC, consumers reported losses totaling $2.1 billion due to scams where the first point of contact was social media of any kind. Social media was the most common communication method for reported losses.
Two billion dollars is a lot of money no matter how you slice it. But it’s even more shocking considering that losses have skyrocketed to 8x 2020 levels. In 2020, consumers who claimed to have connected with scammers on social media reported losses of $261 million.
Fraudsters and fraudsters stole a total of $15.9 billion across various scams in 2025, a record amount and up from $12.5 billion in 2024, according to the latest data from the FTC. The FTC noted that the reports were not collected by the FTC during a 43-day federal government shutdown in fall 2025.
Most fraud involving dollar losses is not reported to the government, and the FTC says the actual losses are likely much higher.
Social media is the perfect place for scammers because it’s so easy to pretend to be someone else.
Some people will hack your account and impersonate you as a way to steal from your friends and family.
I recently wrote about the prevalence of Facebook account takeover scams. This scammer pretends to offer an unsuspecting friend a bargain on a Rolex watch or truck that once belonged to his sick uncle.
Some victims can easily lose $2,000 to $3,000 each by sending down payments for products that don’t even exist. Reality: You may indeed have an uncle, but he wasn’t sick and he never owned a watch more expensive than a Timex.
Additionally, there are fake ads for cute dresses, cute gifts, etc. designed to steal cash and ID information.
Further consumer protection: FBI warns of “bank transfer phone” scam. Here’s how it works
Watchdog wants to make meta a ‘safer place’
In late April, the Consumer Federation of America filed a class action lawsuit in the District of Columbia against Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, alleging that Meta failed to protect consumers from paid ads that turned out to be fraudulent.
The Consumer Federation of America is headquartered in Washington, DC, and the District of Columbia’s consumer protection laws specifically allow such organizations to be named as plaintiffs in class action lawsuits.
Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, said the goal is to force better practices on meta.
Winters told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, that it needs to be a “safer place” where consumers are less exposed to targeting and deceptive advertising. He said Mr. Mehta must also be held accountable for his misconduct, which has so far not been remedied by law or promise.
“We also want to learn more about their practices and bring transparency to a company that has been markedly opaque and inconsistent,” Winters said.
The consumer watchdog group accused Meta of promising its users in the District to meaningfully fight fraud and remove fraudulent content from its platform, but instead adopting policies and practices it believes allow fraudulent advertising to flourish on its platform. Facebook, the group suing, is simultaneously profiting from those ads at the expense of its users.
“Meta maintains that it is doing everything in its power to crack down on fraudulent advertising on its platform,” according to the class action complaint.
“But in reality, Meta is deliberately taking steps and adopting policies that inflate its revenue at the expense of the safety and well-being of its users. In fact, rather than banning advertisers that it determines pose a higher risk to its users (as other technology companies like Google do), Meta simply charges these advertisers higher fees.”
Winters told the Free Press that consumers also need to be wary of scammers hiding behind other companies’ names.
Winters said there is a big problem with shady groups selling profiles of old advertisers that were previously legitimate businesses being used to run fraudulent ads. He said Meta is not doing enough to protect consumers in these cases.
Mehta did not respond to questions from the Detroit Free Press about the lawsuit or the losses.
In case you missed it: How AI is accelerating the scale and sophistication of fraud
How Meta uses AI to fight fraud
In March, Meta issued a press release revealing that the tech giant would be releasing new tools on Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp to protect against fraud.
“Scammers are constantly evolving their tactics, and so are we,” according to a Meta news release issued in March.
“Every day, criminals use increasingly sophisticated methods to deceive people on our platforms and across the internet.”
In 2025, Meta announced that it removed more than 159 million fraudulent ads for violating its policies and removed 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with crime fraud centers.
The company said in a press release in March that it participated in a major disruption operation with law enforcement agencies around the world that resulted in Meta investigators disabling more than 150,000 accounts associated with the fraud center network and also contributing to 21 arrests by the Royal Thai Police.
Among other steps, Meta said it will use advanced AI systems that can analyze multiple signals such as text, images, and surrounding context to identify a wider range of sophisticated fraud patterns more quickly. The goal is to protect consumers from scammers impersonating other people, including celebrities and well-known retail brands.
Don’t trust it, check if it’s real or a scam
Scammers use social media as a way to gain trust before stealing your money.
What better way to sell vitamins than to pretend to be a doctor?
For example, it is not uncommon to encounter ads or advertising pages for medical and health-related products on Facebook that impersonate doctors or celebrities to sell dangerous medical and health-related products, according to research conducted by Reset Tech, an independent nonprofit organization whose mission includes explaining how digital media products are being misused and manipulated to intimidate consumers.
According to the study, the misuse of logos by pharmaceutical companies and other organizations also lends credibility to the products being advertised.
Scammers may also create a profile for you based in part on what you post online. Are you single and looking for love? They send messages from attractive love connections who happen to share the same interests as you.
Eventually, after gaining your trust and affection, they will create a crisis in need of cash or offer investment advice to lure consumers into fake investment platforms.
These days everyone wants to buy bargains and save money.
Additionally, according to the FTC, the most commonly reported type of social media fraud in 2025 was shopping fraud.
More than 40% of people who lost their savings to social media scams said they ordered a product they saw on social media but either never received it or it was of poor quality. We talk about everything from clothes and makeup to car parts and puppies.
The FTC said many of the ads directed consumers to unfamiliar websites, while others directed consumers to sites purporting to be from well-known brands that offered deep discounts. Scammers know how to play the game.
“And by buying ads, they get the same tools that real companies use to target users by age, interests, shopping habits, and more. Scammers can reach billions of people from anywhere in the world at very little cost,” the FTC says.
According to the FTC, the largest reported losses in 2025 for scams initiated on social media were due to investment fraud.
Consumers reported $1.1 billion in losses due to investment-related scams on social media. It was reported that more than half of the amount was lost to social media-related scams. According to the FTC, scammers often connect with consumers through ads or posts offering programs that teach them how to invest.
Scammers don’t just target seniors. According to the FTC, all age groups except those 80 and older report that they lose more money from scams initiated on social media than through other forms of contact. And for people over 80, social media came in second after the phone.
have to protect myself
How can you avoid losing money to social media scams? The FTC and others recommend:
- Limit who can see your posts and contacts on social media. Visit your privacy settings and set some restrictions to make it less accessible to scammers.
- Never recommend how to invest your retirement savings to someone you only met on social media. Instead, learn more about spotting investment fraud.
- Before purchasing, search online for similar products and deals and use the words “scam” or “complaint”.
- If a friend is looking to sell a watch or truck, contact them by phone or through a mutual friend. Don’t send a down payment before you know if someone is selling a really long list of items. Keep in mind that scammers can change your email address once they have taken over your account. In some cases, you may be emailing a scammer rather than a friend.
- Meta recommends that users enable two-factor authentication as an additional layer of protection for their accounts.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompol: stompor@freepress.com. follow himr X @tompor.
