Impersonation fraud

Impersonation fraud is organized around a claimed identity. The contact may present itself as a business, government body, bank, support service or another trusted party. Complaint categories record the reported fraud category, while aggregate totals do not identify the communication technique used.

Imposter scams have been the FTC's most frequently reported fraud category in every calendar year since 2020.¹ In the U.S. FTC's calendar 2025 reporting population, consumers submitted more than 1 million imposter-scam reports and stated losses exceeding 3.5 billion U.S. dollars. Business impersonators accounted for nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars, while government impersonators accounted for about 920 million U.S. dollars.²

The hierarchy below places those subcategories inside the FTC's total calendar 2025 reported fraud losses.

flowchart TD
    A["All FTC fraud losses<br/>15.9 billion US dollars"] --> B["Imposter scams<br/>over 3.5 billion"]
    A --> C["Other fraud"]
    B --> D["Business<br/>nearly 1 billion"]
    B --> E["Government<br/>about 920 million"]
    B --> F["Other imposter types"]

Figure: FTC's 2025 loss hierarchy places business and government impersonation within the broader imposter category.

The structure matters because a new communication method does not necessarily create a new fraud category. A synthetic voice or fabricated image can carry the same identity claim previously delivered through a spoofed call, text, email or fake alert. The complaint may still be recorded simply as an imposter scam.

For someone receiving a demand involving a business or official name, the durable feature is the asserted identity linked to a requested action or payment. The apparent realism of the contact is separate from what the aggregate complaint category measures.

These totals do not establish how many events used cloned voices, synthetic video or fabricated images. A demonstration can show that a method is possible, but the FTC aggregate cannot supply a prevalence rate for that method.

Boundary. The FTC pattern is not a universal description of every reporting system or year. UK Finance members recorded declines in United Kingdom police-or-bank and other-impersonation cases and losses in calendar 2025.³ Different taxonomies also prevent direct international rankings. The U.S. figures remain evidence about the named FTC reporting population, not the world.