A retired nurse, Susan Bivins, was tricked into sending more than $200,000 to a scammer who pretended to be a federal agent. Bivins said she reported the fraud to the FBI and local police, but did not receive the help she had hoped for. The financial damage became even worse when she later received a tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
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The IRS said she owed $80,000 in taxes on money she had withdrawn from her retirement accounts and then lost to the scammer. With no way to cover the bill, Bivins sold her home and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment. “I wanted to drive off a cliff,” she said as quoted by Washington Post. “I didn’t know how I was going to live.”
Bivins is among dozens of scam victims interviewed by news agency Associated Press and Frontline as part of an investigation into the growing impact of online fraud in the US. The victims came from different age groups and financial backgrounds. They felt confused and abandoned after losing their money.
Victims can lose more
The investigation found that losing money to a scam can be only the beginning of a victim’s financial problems. Some victims were left with bank fees, loan repayments and tax bills after scammers took their money.
US consumers reported a record $15.9 billion in scam losses to the Federal Trade Commission last year. That was a 25% increase from 2024. However, the actual losses could be much higher because many victims do not report scams due to embarrassment or shame. The FTC estimated actual losses in 2024 to be close to $200 billion in the US.
The growth of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency has also made scams more sophisticated. AI can help scammers operate on a much larger scale, while cryptocurrency can make it difficult to identify who ultimately controls stolen funds.
A poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 98% of Americans believed they had been targeted by scammers. Three in 10 said they had personally lost money or information to a scam.
AP and FRONTLINE interviewed 58 people in the US who lost money to cyber scams. Their losses ranged from several thousand dollars to $4 million. The victims included doctors, IT professionals, academics and people struggling to make ends meet.
