One in eight successful scams in the U.S. now involve AI or deepfakes, poll finds
A new national survey shows that scammers are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence, with 12 percent of all successful frauds last year involving AI or deepfake technology. The study, conducted by Gallup in partnership with the nonprofit Stop Scams Alliance, estimates that roughly 6 percent of U.S. adults — about 15 million people — lost money to scams in 2025.
“These guys aren’t called organized crime for nothing,” said Ken Westbrook, founder and CEO of Stop Scams Alliance. “They’re actually organized, and they’re using that organization to attack us at scale — to the tune of $68 billion. That’s like the annual revenue of Delta Airlines. It’s a Fortune 500 company. It’s huge.”
The survey, which polled 5,173 U.S. adults in January and February and relied on self-reported experiences, noted that victims often struggle to detect the use of AI in scams. Westbrook said the findings align with other signals pointing to the growing threat of AI-powered fraud.
In March, Interpol warned that artificial intelligence is fueling an “industrialization of fraud.” Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said that “enabled by AI, low-cost digital tools and increased global criminal collaboration, we are witnessing fraud become an industry in its own right.”
AI companies have also documented the problem. In February, OpenAI released a report showing how its platforms were being used for scams worldwide, including one case in which fraudsters created fake “scam recovery” advertisements targeting people who had already been victimized.
Overall, the Gallup and Stop Scams Alliance survey found that Americans lost $68 billion to scams last year. That figure is nearly four times higher than the losses reported to the Federal Trade Commission, largely because the FTC only collects data from victims who formally file complaints. Westbrook stressed that the reporting gap is “one of the reasons we’re not devoting sufficient resources to this problem — we haven’t measured it properly.”
By contrast, the United Kingdom and Australia conduct annual national surveys on scam prevalence. The U.S. does not regularly measure the problem. “The government can’t even tell you what percentage of people in the United States is being scammed,” Westbrook said. “They just get victim reports, but they don’t know how much is unreported. That’s the gap we’re filling with this Gallup survey.”
The survey also found that one in four Americans say they have been personally scammed at some point in their adult lives. Among victims, 21 percent reported severe financial hardship and 46 percent faced moderate hardship. Scam rates were higher among lower-income adults, people of color, and those without a bachelor’s degree.
Scammers frequently used sophisticated research and impersonation tactics to build credibility. One woman told Gallup that after she posted online about her two missing cats, scammers posed as the sheriff’s department and then transferred her to someone claiming to be an emergency vet. The caller said they had her cat and needed $780 for surgery. “It sounded like it was 100 percent legitimate,” she said. Her husband later called the police, who confirmed it was a scam.
Seventy-five percent of scam victims said the experience negatively affected their mental health and well-being. Westbrook recalled reading a line in the Gallup report that hit him hard: “The emotional impact of scams can be more injurious than the financial impact.” His own mother was scammed in 2023 after clicking on a fake obituary page that led to her losing her life savings.
Fraudulent websites were the most common scam type, mentioned by 40 percent of respondents. Phone, text, and email were each involved in nearly half of all scams, and 50 percent of scams used two or more communication methods. In 49 percent of cases, victims were tricked into sending money directly, often through payment apps such as Zelle or PayPal.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.