Setting up and protecting your money
Someone is trying to take your money
Fraud is someone deliberately tricking you into giving up money or information. It is not a rare event and it is not a sign of carelessness — these are professional operations with tested scripts, and young adults are targeted heavily.
This section covers the patterns behind almost every scam, which payment methods can be reversed and which cannot, and exactly what to do in the first hour if it happens.
Americans reported losing $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025 across three million reports — up from $12.5 billion the year before. People under 29 reported losing nearly $500 million of it, about 20% more than in 2021.
Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data, reported in FTC testimony to Congress, March 2026; under-29 figure via Federal Reserve Financial Services, 2026.
The single most useful thing in this section
Know which payments you can undo and which you can't.
Credit card: strongest protection. You can dispute a charge and the law is on your side.
Debit card: some protection, but the money leaves your account first and you fight to get it back.
Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, wire transfer, crypto, gift cards: treat all of these as cash handed to a stranger. Once it's sent, it is usually gone.
Scammers know this, which is why they always steer you toward the irreversible ones. Being told how to pay is itself the warning sign.
The FTC's own data backs up why the payment method matters so much. In 2025, the largest total losses went out through bank payments, followed by cryptocurrency — both effectively irreversible. Credit cards were the most frequently named payment method in reports, and they are the one with real dispute rights behind them.
The fake check scam, which targets your age group specifically
A Better Business Bureau report found people aged 18 to 24 more susceptible to fake check and money order scams than any other age group.
It works like this. You're hired for a remote job or asked to be a 'mystery shopper' or a brand ambassador. They send a check for more than they owe you. They ask you to deposit it and send the difference back, usually by Zelle or gift card.
Your bank makes the funds available in a few days. That is not the same as the check clearing. Two weeks later the check bounces, the bank takes back every dollar, and the money you forwarded is gone. You are responsible for the whole amount.
Rule: no legitimate employer ever sends you money and asks you to send some back. Not once, not ever, for any reason.
Imposters are the most common play
Imposter scams were the most frequently reported fraud of 2025: the FTC received more than 1 million reports of them, with over $3.5 billion in losses. Someone pretends to be your bank's fraud department, a government agency, a company you use, a tech support line, or a relative in trouble.
The pattern is always the same three moves: urgency, a threat or a prize, and a specific unusual payment method.
Your defense is one habit. Hang up, then call back on a number you find yourself — from your card, your statement, the official website you typed in. Never a number they gave you, never a link they sent. A real bank will not object to you calling back.
Investment and crypto pitches
Investment scams took the most money of any category. In testimony to Congress in March 2026, the FTC reported over $7.9 billion lost to them in 2025 — roughly half of all reported fraud losses that year — with an average individual loss of over $10,000.
The modern version starts as a friendship or a relationship on social media or a messaging app. Weeks of normal conversation, then a mention of trading profits, then a platform that shows your balance growing. The balance is a webpage. When you try to withdraw, there are fees, then more fees.
Anything guaranteeing returns is lying. Anything requiring you to recruit others is a pyramid. Anyone who met you online and eventually mentioned investing is running a script.
Scams aimed at people who are already struggling
Debt relief companies promising to erase your debt for an upfront fee. Illegal — legitimate credit counseling is nonprofit and doesn't charge upfront to promise results.
Student loan forgiveness services. Everything they sell is free at StudentAid.gov.
Advance-fee loans: 'guaranteed approval, just pay the processing fee first.' No real lender asks for money before lending you money.
Rental listings that are cheaper than everything else and where the 'landlord' is out of town and needs a deposit by app before you can see it.
Protect the account itself
Turn on two-factor authentication for your bank and your email. Your email is the master key — whoever controls it can reset everything else.
Use a different password for your bank than for anything else.
Turn on transaction alerts so you see charges as they happen.
Freeze your credit at all three bureaus. It's free, it takes about fifteen minutes, and it blocks someone from opening accounts in your name. You can unfreeze temporarily when you apply for something.
If it already happened
Act the same day. Call your bank or card issuer and say the word 'fraud.' Ask them to attempt a reversal, and ask what the deadline is.
Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for identity theft, IdentityTheft.gov, which builds you a recovery plan.
Change the password on your email first, then everything else.
And do not carry shame about it. These operations are professional, well-funded, and designed by people who test their scripts. Being targeted successfully says nothing about your intelligence.
What you can do
- Memorize which payment methods are reversible and which are not.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for your email and your bank today.
- Freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It's free.
- Set up transaction alerts on every account.
- Practice the callback habit: hang up, find the number yourself, call back.
- Save ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IdentityTheft.gov in your phone now, not later.
Where to check this yourself
reportfraud.ftc.gov and identitytheft.gov. consumer.ftc.gov for current scam alerts. Credit freezes go through Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion directly, always free.