Polls Reveal Just How Often Scammers Hit Us

Most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a daily basis—and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC poll. A separate survey conducted by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance that was provided exclusively to the AP found that last year alone, about 1 in 10 US adults said they or someone else from their household was deceived by a scammer into losing money or providing access to a financial account, with nearly half saying they lost more than $500. The landscape:

• A flood of scam attempts: Some 58% of US adults in the AP-NORC poll said they receive daily text messages, phone calls, emails, online messages, or online ads that they suspect are scams, while the Gallup survey found last year that about 4 in 10 experienced attempted scams on a daily basis.
• The age factor: Per the AP-NORC poll, about 7 in 10 adults ages 60 and older say they are contacted by a suspected scammer at least once a day, compared to about 4 in 10 Americans under 30.
• Frequency: About 1 in 10 adults have been scammed multiple times, Gallup found.
• Reporting: Some 55% of people who were scammed last year reported it to a bank, credit union, or other financial institution, the Gallup poll found, but only 18% contacted state or local law enforcement, while 13% reported to either federal law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission. Many victims don't make a report because they don't think it will help, or don't know where to go, Gallup found. Among people who were scammed in 2025, 75% said they didn't report because they thought it wouldn't make a difference in getting their money back, while 58% were uncertain where to report.
• Reporting II: According to the AP-NORC poll, most Americans, 55%, say they are "extremely" or "very" confident that if they were scammed, they'd know how to report it to banks or credit card companies, but only about one-quarter are similarly confident that they'd know how to report to federal or state law enforcement.