AI-driven scams cost 1 in 6 Americans money, with $2,307 median loss

A recent TransUnion analysis found that about 1 in 6 U.S. consumers say they lost money to digital fraud in the past year, with a median loss of $2,307.

Where the “1 in 6” and $2,307 come from

• TransUnion’s H1 2026 Top Fraud Trends Update reports that roughly one in six U.S. consumers surveyed lost money to digital fraud (email, online, phone, or text scams) over the prior year.

• Among those who lost money, the median reported loss was $2,307, meaning half of victims lost more than that amount and half lost less.

• TransUnion directly links the growth and sophistication of these scams to generative AI, which is making phishing, impersonation, and other fraud attempts more convincing and scalable.

Context: scale and AI’s role

• The FBI’s latest Internet Crime Report separately shows 22,364 complaints flagged as AI-enabled scams in 2025, with reported losses of $893 million, illustrating the rapid rise of AI-related fraud specifically.

• Broader cybercrime losses (not just AI) reached nearly $21 billion in 2025, suggesting that AI-driven schemes are a growing share of an already large fraud problem.

• Other analyses estimate AI-enabled cybercrime across the U.S. in the tens of billions annually and project steep growth as generative AI tools continue to improve and proliferate.