Scams by Contact Method: Phone, Email, Text & Social Media
How scammers reach victims — by phone, email, text message, or social media — and how reported losses differ by contact channel.
Last reviewed: 7 July 2026
Understanding how scammers make first contact helps consumers recognise and avoid fraud before money is lost. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network tracks the contact method that reporters identify, giving a picture of which channels drive the most reports and the highest losses.
Figures are from the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 and related FTC press releases, covering losses reported by US consumers.
Key figures
Email — the most frequently reported contact method for the second consecutive year
Most common contact method for fraud reports (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 (2024)
$470 million in 2024
Reported losses to scams starting with a text message
Source: FTC: New FTC Data Show Top Text Message Scams of 2024 (press release, April 2025) (2024)
$1.9 billion in 2024
Reported losses to scams starting on social media
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Reported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020 (April 2026) (2024)
70% of people who reported being contacted by a scammer via social media said they lost money
Proportion of social media reporters who said they lost money
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Reported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020 (April 2026) (2024)
People lost over $3 billion to scams that started online, compared to approximately $1.9 billion lost to phone, text, or email contact
Losses to scams that started online vs. traditional contact (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Consumer Alert: Top scams of 2024 (2024)
A median of $1,500 per person — higher than for other contact methods
Median loss when contacted by phone (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Consumer Alert: Top scams of 2024 (2024)
One in three people who reported fraud said they lost money, up from one in four last year
Share of fraud reporters who lost money (FTC, 2024 vs 2023)
Source: FTC Consumer Alert: Top scams of 2024 (2024)
Nearly 6.5 million reports, a 20 percent increase from the previous year
Total consumer reports received via Consumer Sentinel Network (2024)
Source: KPMG Regulatory Insights: Fraud, Identity Theft, and Other Scams (2024 FTC Data Book Insights) (2024)
More than 1.1 million reports
Identity theft reports filed via IdentityTheft.gov (2024)
Source: FTC Press Release: Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud, $12.5 Billion in 2024 (March 2025) (2024)
Key takeaways
- Email was the single most commonly reported contact method for fraud in 2024 for the second year running.
- Text message scams cost consumers $470 million in 2024.
- Social media was the contact channel with the highest rate of reported money loss: 70% of those contacted by scammers on social media said they lost money.
- Reported losses from social media-originated scams reached $1.9 billion in 2024, up from $261 million in 2020.
Frequently asked questions
Which contact method leads to the biggest financial losses?
Social media stands out for the highest proportion of reporters who lose money (70%), while phone calls tend to produce higher median losses per victim. Email is the most common initial contact method by volume. Each channel is associated with different scam types — for example, social media is closely tied to investment and shopping scams, while phone calls are common in government impersonation and tech support scams.