The Decrease in Identity Fraud and Scam Losses Might Be an Omen, Javelin Suggests

While there may be apparent good news in the 23^rd edition of the Javelin Strategy & Research Identity Fraud Study, it’s likely premature to think that criminals and scammers are backtracking.

In 2025, the combined impact of identity fraud and scams totaled $38 billion, down $9 billion or 18.6% from the 2024 total of $46.7 billion. While last year’s losses to ID fraud totaled $27.3 billion, up slightly from $27.2 billion in 2024, it’s in scams that the fraud losses dramatically decreased, falling to $10.7 billion, down 45% from $19.5 billion in 2024.

But it may be difficult to consider this a win for consumers and the companies holding their data because criminals are very likely capturing data for future misuse, suggests Suzanna Sando, lead analyst in the Javelin fraud-management practice.

“We discovered there were a lot of victims who ended up providing their scammer with personal or financial information,” Sando tells Digital Transactions News. In some instances, a consumer may have gone on long enough where he or she released some information, but stopped the bad actor from getting access to funds.

The danger in that is the victim may see it as stopping the scam, but now that information is in the criminal’s hands, she says.

“Now that your information is out there, we don’t really know what’s going to happen to it,” Sando says. The victim may consider the threat neutralized, but realistically, the criminal may harbor it only to use it later for another scam or identity-fraud scheme, she says.

She cautions that the reduction in losses does not mean reduced risk. Nearly one-third of victims provided information, such as banking details, though even the release of phone numbers and email addresses can lead to problems of their own, Sando says.

Another surprise was that despite the best intentions and efforts by financial institutions to educate and alert their customers to fraud attempts, many consumers—more than half, Sando says—didn’t take action because they thought the alert was a scam.

“We know the danger in skipping a fraud alert is now maybe we’re potentially not handling an instance of fraud as quickly as we should,” she says. Part of the issue may be that the legitimate alerts may contain elements consumers have been warned to look out for, she says.

One way to prevent this alert apathy may be to better educate consumers on when a financial institution will reach out. “Establishing and committing to a list of the reasons a bank is going to reach out to a customer” can help, Sando says. This includes setting out what the bank or credit union will ask for and what it will never ask for.

“Unfortunately, we’re at this point where consumers continue to be the first line of defense; whether they should be or not, they are,” Sando says.