Are scams rising in my country? How to check official fraud trends

Source review: October 15, 2026. The figures below describe calendar year 2025 as reported by the named bodies; they are not live counters. Publication dates and dataset boundaries are given with the figures. For changing official policies or newer figures, follow the linked source.

Choose a country

• United States — FTC and FBI IC3
• Canada — Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
• Australia — National Anti-Scam Centre
• Elsewhere — finding your national source

This first version deliberately covers only three countries with traceable primary sources. It does not rank countries by how many scams they experience.

United States

Main series: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cyber-enabled crime complaints. Its 2025 annual report, published in 2026, lists 1,008,597 complaints and US$20.877 billion in reported losses for 2025. Reported losses rose 26% from 2024 within this IC3 series. Prominent complaint categories include phishing/spoofing, extortion and investment fraud.

A different series: FTC Consumer Sentinel. The FTC separately reported about US$16 billion in consumer fraud losses for 2025, approximately 25% above 2024. This is not the same population, reporting channel or accounting scope as IC3. Do not add the FTC and IC3 numbers. The FTC's data dashboards and annual reports let readers explore US consumer-report trends; the 2025 FTC release gives the loss estimate and trend.

How to interpret it: IC3 also accepts eligible complaints involving people or subjects outside the United States, so its total is not a U.S.-resident-only incidence count. More reported losses are evidence that losses reported to those agencies rose; they cannot establish the total number of incidents nationwide. Complaint counts, dollar losses, reporting propensity, incident definitions and collection practices can move independently.

Where to report: FTC ReportFraud for consumer scams; FBI IC3 for cyber-enabled crime. If immediate money loss is involved, first contact the relevant bank or payment provider. See the international reporting guide for a decision sequence.

Canada

Main series: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), reported fraud losses. The Government of Canada cited CAD $704 million in losses reported in 2025, compared with CAD $645 million for 2024. These are rounded, reported loss figures, not an estimate of all money stolen. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's June 2026 statement provides that within-source comparison.

How to interpret it: This supports an increase in CAFC-reported financial losses, not a measured increase in the number of actual scam incidents. Canadian authorities also warn that much fraud goes unreported; do not multiply the figures to manufacture a definitive national total. Different Canadian government publications may show revised or rounded historical estimates.

Where to report: The CAFC/RCMP Report Cybercrime and Fraud system accepts victim or witness reports and provides an anonymous option. Victims should contact local police; use the bank or payment provider promptly if a transaction may still be stopped.

Australia

Main series: National Anti-Scam Centre's combined reporting data. The Targeting scams 2025 report, published March 30, 2026, reports AUD $2.18 billion in combined reported losses, up 7.8% from 2024. It also reports 481,523 combined scam reports, down 2.3% from 2024. The combined figures draw from Scamwatch and several other participating organizations; they are not simply Scamwatch-only reports.

The useful contrast: Reported monetary losses increased while the number of reports decreased. Asking only whether “scams are rising” hides that difference. In the 2025 combined data, investment scams accounted for AUD $837.7 million in reported losses, ahead of payment redirection and romance scams. The listed categories and methodologies belong to this specific Australian compilation.

Where to report: Scamwatch collects Australian scam reports for prevention and disruption, but submitting to Scamwatch is not an official police report. Use the police/cybercrime reporting route linked by Scamwatch when appropriate, alongside urgent contact with your payment provider.

Other countries

Start with your national police, cybercrime service, consumer-protection authority or financial regulator. Look for an annual report, downloadable historical series, release date, category definitions and disclosure of reporting limitations. For European countries, Europol links to national cybercrime reporting options; it does not serve as a general complaint desk in place of national police. For international consumer fraud, econsumer.gov is a supplementary cross-border channel, not a substitute for local emergency action.

A private company's global survey may measure exposure or self-reported experience instead of official complaints. Those are different evidence types. For an example of broader but non-comparable international signals, see ScamMark's global scam research.

How to tell whether scams are actually rising

1. Choose a consistent metric. Complaints, victims, confirmed crimes, money lost and survey responses are not interchangeable.
2. Compare within one series. Check the same agency, type of complaint, country and full reporting year. Note revisions and changes to collection methods.
3. Examine both counts and losses. A decrease in reports can coexist with an increase in losses, as Australia's 2025 figures demonstrate.
4. Check reporting bias. Publicity, a newly launched reporting form, willingness to report and enforcement priorities can change the numbers.
5. Read the source's limitations. Voluntary complaints are not population-based incidence surveys and should not be used to rank countries against each other.

Bottom line: These three examples allow qualified statements about changes in officially reported fraud, not a comparable global league table. ScamMark does not collect scam reports or investigate crimes; find the appropriate official reporting destination if you need to act on an incident.