Research digests · Scams and fraud
FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book 2024: what it found on fraud losses
| Publisher | Federal Trade Commission |
|---|---|
| Year | 2024 |
| Report | https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/csn-annual-data-book-2024.pdf |
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 compiles consumer fraud reports. Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, which represents a 25% increase over the prior year (FTC). Gift card or reload card payments account for 41,120 reports and $212M reported lost, per the Data Book 2024 payment-method table (FTC Data Book).
What it measured
The Data Book is a count of reports, not a survey or an estimate. Each line is a consumer, a law enforcement partner, or an organization that filed a report into the Sentinel network. It sorts those reports by fraud type, by payment method, by age, and by state. Because it counts reports, it undercounts real losses: people who never report, or who report only to their bank, do not appear. Read the figures as a floor.
Headline findings
Total losses rose. Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, which represents a 25% increase over the prior year (FTC).
Imposter scams sat near the top. The second highest reported loss amount came from imposter scams, with $2.95 billion reported lost (FTC). Imposter scams are the category that most often ends at a gift card rack: the caller claims to be a government agency, a tech company, a utility, or a relative, and the payment instruction is a gift card.
Gift cards are a measurable payment channel. The payment-method table lists Gift Card or Reload Card at 41,120 reports and $212M reported lost (FTC Data Book). Each of those reports ran through a retail register.
How to use it in a program
The Data Book earns its place in a loss prevention program in a few ways.
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Sizing the problem for leadership. A district manager who doubts that gift card scams are worth register time can be shown the payment-method line and the year-over-year total.
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Training content. The imposter scam category maps directly to the cashier cues taught in gift card scam awareness training for cashiers: the customer on the phone, the urgent story, the request for several cards.
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Huddle material. A single sourced figure on a huddle card makes the topic concrete for a crew that has never seen a scam victim. The format is in huddle talking points for loss prevention.
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Pull the payment-method table and note the gift card line for the store’s training deck.
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Add the imposter scam definition to cashier onboarding.
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Set a store rule for when a cashier pauses a gift card sale and calls a manager.
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Tell associates the rule is observe, pause, and report. Never argue with the customer about whether the call is real, and never follow anyone out of the store.
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Review the store’s own declined-sale log against the Data Book categories once a quarter.
Limits
The Data Book counts what was reported to Sentinel. It cannot say how many gift card scams were stopped at a register, or how many victims never filed. It does not break out losses by retailer or by store format. It also reports the dollar amount the consumer stated, which may be rounded or partial. For a store, the number that matters more is local: how many gift card sales were paused, and what happened next. The Data Book is the backdrop for that count, not a substitute. For every scam and fraud article on the site, see the scams and fraud topic hub.