Americans lost $2.7 BILLION to social media scams since 2021 – as experts warn why clicking an ad can be a costly mistake

Americans are being scammed out of billions of dollars by social media scammers, new data show.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), victims have lost $2.7 billion to social media fraudsters since 2021.

Scammers are increasingly targeting victims through fake ads for online stores, bogus investment schemes and romance scams, the data shows, often originating on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

The FTC warns that social media gives scammers an edge, as they can easily craft a fake persona — or even hack into your profile, pretend to be you, and scam your friends.

Criminals also find their victims through what they share on social media. Scammers who post ads methodically target Americans based on personal details such as their age, interests or past purchases, the FTC said.

While social media scams affect people of all ages – the numbers are most striking for younger people.

In the first half of 2023, 38 percent of fraud reported by 20-29-year-olds came from social media, according to the FTC.

For people aged 18-19, that figure was 47 percent – ​​nearly half of all reported fraud for that age group.

Online shopping scams are the most common fraud originating on social media, the FTC found — accounting for 44 percent of all loss reports.

Most of these reports are about undelivered goods, with clothes not arriving and electronics at the top of the list – and the majority of these cons come from an ad on Facebook or Instagram.

The bulk of dollar losses, meanwhile, have come from scams that use social media platforms to promote bogus investment opportunities – often involving cryptocurrency.

In the first six months of this year, more than half of the money reported lost to social media fraud went to investment scams – luring victims with promises of big returns and even fake celebrity endorsements.

Cryptocurrency was identified as the payment method in 53 percent of these transactions.

Romance scams also had the second largest losses in the first half of this year, the FTC found, mostly originating on platforms Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.

Hannah Ford, from Texas, told ABC News how she fell victim to a social media scam after clicking on an ad for an online store to buy a gift for a friend.

‘Everything looked really legit. It had positive customer reviews and there was a video of her showing off her storefront in her Florida location,’ she said.

But when her order didn’t arrive, she noticed the social media page and website for the company no longer existed.

That comes as separate data from Bankrate revealed that Americans spent $71 billion on impulse purchases in the past year, inspired by what they saw on social media.

Analyst Ted Rossman, told DailyMail.com, warning that these online shopping habits leave consumers vulnerable to scams.

“Be on the lookout for ads on social media claiming to be ‘going out of business’ or ‘flash’ sales,” he told DailyMail.com.

‘These could be phishing scams that encourage buyers to enter their personal payment information.’

To reduce your chances of falling victim to a social media scam, the FTC recommends limiting who can see your social media posts and information by tightening your privacy settings.

If you get a message from a friend about an opportunity or an urgent need for money, call them and see if they might have been hacked.

Never send money to someone you haven’t met in person and be wary of out-of-the-blue messages on social media from people you don’t know.

Before you buy anything online, check the company by searching online for the company name plus “scam” or “complaint,” the FTC says.