Types of scams in 2026: the complete guide to every common scam, the warning signs, and what to do
One page that covers every major scam Americans meet today: how each works, the sign that gives it away, what to do in the moment, and the official figures behind it. Updated September 2026.
Key takeaways
- Almost every scam is one of four moves: pretend to be someone you trust, invent a problem or a prize, add pressure, and demand a payment that cannot be reversed.
- The most common scam is impersonation, with more than 1 million reports to the FTC in 2025. The most expensive is investment fraud, with more than $7.9 billion reported lost.
- Text messages are now the most common first contact. The most damaging payment methods are bank transfers and cryptocurrency.
- One habit beats all of them: pause, verify through a route you chose yourself, and tell someone.
- If money has already gone, contact the company you paid through first. Minutes matter more than certainty.
What a scam is
A scam is a lie told to get money or information from you with your cooperation. That last part is what separates it from theft. A thief takes. A scammer persuades you to hand it over, which is why the defenses are about habits rather than locks.
In 2025 Americans made about 3 million fraud reports to the Federal Trade Commission and reported losing $15.9 billion, the highest figure on record. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded about $20.9 billion in reported losses from internet crime in the same year. Both agencies say the true figure is many times higher, because most people never report. The full numbers are in our scam statistics guide.
This page is the map. Each section covers one type of scam in the same shape: how it works, the sign that gives it away, and what to do. Most sections link to a longer guide.
The four moves behind every scam
The Federal Trade Commission has boiled decades of reports down to four signs, and once you know them you will see them everywhere:
- They pretend. To be your bank, a delivery company, a government agency, a tech company, your boss, or a relative.
- They invent a problem or a prize. Your account is locked. Your package is held. A relative is in jail. You have won.
- They pressure you. Act now, within the hour, before the deadline, and do not tell anyone.
- They tell you how to pay. Gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, a payment app, or cash to a courier. Ways that cannot be reversed.
Every type below is a variation on these four moves. The defense is also the same every time:
Pause. Verify through a phone number, app, or website you already had. Talk to someone you trust before you act.
Scams at a glance
| Type | Usual first contact | The tell | Losses reported to the FTC in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investment and crypto | Social media, dating apps, wrong-number texts | Guaranteed returns, and a fee to withdraw | More than $7.9 billion |
| Imposter (bank, business, government, family) | Text, phone call, email | "Move your money to keep it safe" | $3.5 billion |
| Business email compromise | Email to a company | New bank details for an old invoice | About $3 billion (FBI figure) |
| Tech support | Pop-up, phone call | A number to call and a request for remote access | About $2.1 billion (FBI figure) |
| Romance | Dating apps, social media | Cannot meet, then needs money | Included in imposter and investment totals |
| Online shopping and marketplace | Ads, listings | Payment by app before you see the goods | Among the most reported categories |
| Jobs | Job boards, texts, chat apps | You pay to work, or deposit a check and send money on | Among the most reported categories |
| Prizes, lotteries, grants | Text, email, mail, phone | A fee to release your winnings | Among the most reported categories |
The dollar figures come from the FTC's March 2026 congressional testimony, its June 2026 imposter-scam release, and coverage of the FBI's 2025 report. Most categories overlap, so do not add them together.
Impersonation scams
How it works. Someone contacts you pretending to be an organization or person you trust, describes a problem, and offers to fix it if you act now. The costliest version begins with a fake bank security alert and ends with you moving your own money to a "safe account" that belongs to the scammer.
The tell. A real bank, agency, or company never asks you to move money to protect it, never asks you to read out a code, and never insists you stay on the phone while you go to the bank.
What to do. Hang up or close the message. Call the organization on the number from your card, a bill, or its official site. If the problem is real, you will find it there.
Government impersonation
Social Security, the IRS, Medicare, courts, and police. Threats of arrest, a "suspended" Social Security number, or a missed jury duty fine. About $920 million in reported losses in 2025. Read the government impersonation guide.
Bank and business impersonation
Fraud alerts, Amazon or Apple account holds, subscription renewals you did not make, delivery problems. Business impersonation losses were nearly $1 billion in 2025. See how to tell if a text is a scam and unpaid toll texts.
Family emergency and voice cloning
A grandchild in jail, a child with a broken phone and a new number, a relative who needs money quietly. Cloned voices now make the call sound right. Read the AI voice cloning guide.
Investment and cryptocurrency scams
How it works. A friendly stranger, often met through a wrong-number text or a dating app, shows you how they make money trading crypto. You are guided to a professional-looking platform, deposit a little, see profits, and deposit a lot. When you try to withdraw, there is a tax or fee to pay first. The platform is fake and the profits were never real.
The tell. Guaranteed or unusually steady returns, an introduction from someone you have never met in person, and having to pay money to get your money.
What to do. Check any adviser or firm at investor.gov and brokercheck.finra.org. Never install a trading app from a link. Never pay a fee to release a balance. Read the crypto investment scam guide.
Romance scams
How it works. Weeks or months of attention from someone who cannot meet you, followed by an emergency, a plane ticket, a customs fee, or an investment tip.
The tell. Any request for money, gift cards, or crypto from someone you have not met in person.
What to do. Reverse image search their photos, propose a video call at a time you choose, and tell a friend. Read the romance scam guide, and if intimate images are involved, the blackmail and sextortion guide.
Tech support scams
How it works. A pop-up or a call says your computer is infected or your subscription has renewed. There is a number to call. The person who answers asks for remote access and then for payment or your bank login "to process the refund".
The tell. Real security warnings never include a phone number. Real companies do not call about viruses.
What to do. Close the browser, never call the number, never allow remote access. If you already did, disconnect from the internet and change passwords from another device. See freeze your credit and lock down your accounts.
Phishing: texts, emails, links, and QR codes
How it works. A message that looks like it comes from a company you use, with a link to a page that collects your password or card number. Delivery notices, toll demands, account holds, and password expiry warnings are the common bait.
The tell. You were not expecting it, it wants speed, and the link's real domain is not the company's.
What to do. Do not use the link. Open the app or type the address. Learn to read an address in ten seconds with our link checking guide, and see QR code scams for codes on parking meters, packages, and emails.
Payment scams: gift cards, payment apps, and fake checks
Gift cards. Anyone who demands payment in gift cards is a scammer, without exception. Read the gift card guide.
Zelle, Venmo, Cash App. These move money like cash. Fake fraud alerts that tell you to "send money to yourself", accidental payments you are asked to return, and marketplace "business account upgrade" fees are the common forms. Read the payment app guide.
Fake checks. You receive a check for more than agreed and are asked to send the difference back. The check bounces days later and the bank takes the money from you.
Shopping, marketplace, and rental scams
How it works. A listing that is too cheap, a seller who wants payment by app before you see the item, a buyer who overpays or sends a fake "payment pending" email, or a landlord who is out of town and will mail the keys once you send the deposit.
The tell. Payment before inspection, payment outside the platform, and a reason you cannot meet.
What to do. See it before you pay, stay on the platform, and pay in a way you can dispute. Read the rental scam guide.
Job and task scams
How it works. A recruiter offers remote work at generous pay. Then you must buy equipment with a check they send, pay for training, or "top up" an account to unlock higher-paying tasks. Task scams, which pay you small amounts for rating products or liking videos before asking for a deposit, are among the fastest growing.
The tell. Real work pays you. You never pay to be paid.
What to do. Verify the company through its own website and a phone number you find yourself, and refuse any job that involves depositing checks or sending money on.
Prize, lottery, and grant scams
How it works. You have won, or you qualify for a government grant. To receive it you pay taxes, insurance, or a processing fee first.
The tell. You did not enter, and there is a fee to collect.
What to do. Real prizes are free. Delete the message and report it.
Charity scams
How it works. After a disaster, appeals appear from organizations with almost-familiar names, asking for gift cards, crypto, or wires.
The tell. Pressure to give now, and a payment method no real charity uses.
What to do. Check the organization yourself and give by card on its own site. Read the charity scam guide.
Debt relief, loans, and government benefits
How it works. Unsolicited offers of student loan forgiveness, debt settlement, or a grant, with a deadline and a fee. Or a call about a problem with your benefits that needs your Social Security number to fix.
The tell. You did not apply, and the offer arrives with pressure or an upfront charge.
What to do. Go directly to your loan servicer, studentaid.gov, or the agency's own site.
Business scams
How it works. An email in the middle of a genuine conversation says the supplier's bank details have changed. An executive asks a junior employee for an urgent, confidential transfer or gift cards. An employee asks HR to update their direct deposit. Losses to business email compromise were about $3 billion in 2025.
The tell. Any change to payment details, and any urgent request from a senior person who cannot be reached.
What to do. Confirm every change by phone using a number already on file. Read the invoice and payroll fraud guide.
Blackmail and sextortion
How it works. A mass email claims to have recorded you through your webcam and quotes an old password from a data breach. Or a person you met online has real images and threatens to share them.
The tell. The email is a bluff sent to millions. The targeted threat is real but rarely carried out when you stop responding.
What to do. Do not pay. Stop contact, save evidence, report to the platform and the FBI. Read the blackmail and sextortion guide.
Recovery scams
How it works. After a loss, someone contacts you offering to get your money back for a fee. They often work with, or are, the original scammers.
The tell. They contacted you, and they want payment first.
What to do. Only your bank, the FTC, the FBI, and your state attorney general can help, and all are free. Read the recovery scam guide.
How scammers reach you
| Channel | What arrives | The habit that stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Text message | Delivery, toll, bank, and "new number" texts | Never use the link or number in the text. Forward to 7726 |
| Phone call | Government, bank, tech support, family emergency | Hang up and call back on a number you already have |
| Account holds, invoices, blackmail, QR codes | Read the sender's address after the @, and the link's real domain | |
| Social media and dating apps | Romance, investment, job offers, fake shops | Never send money to someone you have not met |
| Search results and ads | Fake customer service numbers, fake shops | Use the app or the number on your card, not a search result |
| Physical world | QR stickers, fake parking notices, door-to-door | Treat a code as a link from a stranger |
If it has already happened
Speed beats certainty. Contact the company you paid through first, then report. Our complete recovery guide walks through every payment method and every kind of information that may have been exposed, and the already clicked or paid? page gives the shortest possible version.
Protecting a family or an organization
The habits above are simple. The hard part is getting everyone to use them under pressure. Our guide to talking with parents about scams covers the conversation, the free Family Scam Safety Guide puts the plan on paper, and the printable kits add workbooks, scripts, and a ready-to-run workshop for organizations.
Check a message right now
Paste a text, email, or link into the scam checker. It reads the message for these patterns in your browser, explains what it found, and never sends anything anywhere.
Common questions
What are the most common types of scams?
By number of reports to the FTC in 2025, the most common types were imposter scams (someone pretending to be a bank, company, government agency, or relative), online shopping scams, prize and lottery scams, investment scams, and job scams. By money lost, investment scams were first, followed by imposter scams.
What are the four signs of a scam?
The Federal Trade Commission describes four signs that appear in almost every scam: the contact pretends to be from an organization or person you trust, they say there is a problem or a prize, they pressure you to act immediately, and they tell you to pay in a specific, hard-to-reverse way such as gift cards, crypto, wire transfer, or a payment app.
How do I know if I am being scammed?
Ask three questions. Was I expecting this contact? Am I being rushed? Am I being asked for money, a code, a password, remote access, or secrecy? A yes to the first two is a reason to check. A yes to the third is a reason to stop and verify through a phone number or website you already had.
What is the newest type of scam?
The scripts are old, but the tools are new. In 2025 the FBI counted complaints involving artificial intelligence for the first time, about 22,000 with roughly $893 million in losses. Cloned voices in family emergency calls, fake videos in investment pitches, and mass-produced phishing text are the main uses. The defense is unchanged: verify the situation, not the voice.
Who is most likely to be scammed?
Everyone. FTC data has consistently shown younger adults report losing money to fraud more often, while older adults lose more per incident. People aged 60 and over reported about $7.7 billion in losses to the FBI in 2025. Being educated, careful, or experienced does not make you immune, because the scripts are professionally written and tested.
Official sources and further reading
- FTC prepared testimony, March 2026: The Rising Scam Economy (PDF)
- FTC, June 2026: imposter scam losses in 2025
- FTC: How To Avoid a Scam
- FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed
- CyberScoop: coverage of the FBI IC3 2025 annual report
- FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data
Published September 30, 2026, last updated September 30, 2026. This guide is general education for people in the United States. It is not legal or financial advice, and it cannot tell you whether a particular message or person is genuine. Spot an error? Tell us.