BBB: 146K Scam Reports Show $5K Median Crypto Scam Loss

The BBB's Scam Tracker data is a public threat-intelligence feed in disguise: 146,000 crowdsourced reports quantifying which social-engineering lures actually convert and what they cost victims. For security teams, the standout signal is the rise of scam texts — and the BBB's advice to ignore even 'STOP' replies reveals a key technical detail: any response validates a live number for retargeting, while embedded links remain the delivery path for credential harvesting and malware.

The Better Business Bureau's Institute for Marketplace Trust has released its annual assessment of the riskiest scams, built from more than 146,000 reports submitted to BBB Scam Tracker by consumers and businesses across the United States and Canada. Published on September 8, 2026, the report distills the 2025 threat landscape into a composite risk ranking that weighs three factors: how often a scam type is reported, how frequently victims actually lose money, and the median dollar amount lost. That methodology matters because it explains why the most common fraud is not the most dangerous. Investment and cryptocurrency scams topped the risk index despite not being the most numerous, because they combine a meaningful loss rate with the highest median financial damage: $5,000 for those who lost money. This category's severity reflects fraudsters exploiting urgency, the promise of outsized returns, and the practical irreversibility of cryptocurrency transfers, which makes recovery extraordinarily difficult once funds leave a victim's wallet.

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Investment and cryptocurrency scams topped the risk index despite not being the most numerous, because they combine a meaningful loss rate with the highest median financial damage: $5,000 for those who lost money.

Employment scams ranked second overall and were the single biggest risk for adults aged 18 to 34, with a median loss of $1,000. The BBB specifically flagged fake work-from-home and online marketing jobs that require workers to deposit their own money or pay fees to access supposed earnings — a classic advance-fee structure that has migrated onto messaging apps and job platforms. These schemes frequently operate as 'task scams,' where victims are paid small amounts early to build trust before being asked to front larger sums. Beyond the direct financial loss, employment scams are a serious identity-theft and money-mule recruitment channel, because victims hand over personal data, bank details, and sometimes their own accounts under the guise of onboarding. For security teams, this demographic skew toward younger adults is significant: it indicates attackers are targeting a population that is digitally fluent but may have less experience recognizing fraudulent employment or payment structures.

Online purchase scams were the most commonly reported category, yet carried a comparatively modest median loss of $68. This is the high-volume, long-tail fraud of the digital economy: buyers pay for goods that never arrive or receive items that do not match the description. The low per-incident cost means individual victims rarely escalate, which lets attackers operate at scale across marketplaces and social media storefronts. The report's three-factor risk model deliberately downgrades these scams relative to investment fraud, but the sheer volume signals a broad and persistent abuse of consumer payment infrastructure.