Job scam report 2025: what US government data shows
LiveRec is a verified job platform for seekers and employers in the US and India. This report brings together what two US agencies published about job and employment scams, with a link and access date for every figure. It uses no LiveRec platform numbers. Where an official source could not be read automatically, we say so at the end rather than fill the gap.
Headline findings
- The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 24,688 employment-fraud complaints in 2025, up from 20,044 in 2024 and 15,443 in 2023.
- Reported losses to employment fraud reached $362,934,762 in 2025, up from $264,223,271 in 2024 and $70,234,079 in 2023: more than five times the 2023 level.
- The FTC reported that losses to job and employment agency scams rose from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024, and that the number of reports tripled over those years.
- People aged 30 to 39 filed the most employment complaints to IC3 in 2025 (5,025), but people aged 50 to 59 reported the largest losses of the age groups shown, at $100,853,442.
- The FTC says one in three people who reported losing money to a job or business opportunity scam in 2025 said it started on social media.
FBI IC3: employment fraud, 2023 to 2025
IC3 defines employment fraud as a person who believes they are legitimately employed and loses money, or launders money or items, during that employment.
| Year | Employment complaints | Reported losses |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24,688 | $362,934,762 |
| 2024 | 20,044 | $264,223,271 |
| 2023 | 15,443 | $70,234,079 |
In 2025 IC3 received 1,008,597 complaints of all types and $20.877 billion in reported losses, so employment fraud was 1.7% of losses. Total losses divided by complaints is about $14,701 per complaint, but that average includes complaints that reported no loss, so it is not the typical amount a victim lost.
By age group, 2025
| Age group | Employment complaints | Reported losses |
|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 835 | $1,489,854 |
| 20 to 29 | 4,555 | $33,049,422 |
| 30 to 39 | 5,025 | $42,865,213 |
| 40 to 49 | 4,524 | $57,604,303 |
| 50 to 59 | 3,671 | $100,853,442 |
IC3 publishes the 60 and over figures in a separate elder-fraud section that does not break out employment fraud.
IC3 also reports that victims lost almost $13 million to employment scams in which AI was involved, for example voice spoofing in online interviews.
FTC Consumer Sentinel: job and business opportunity scams
- In 2024, reported losses to business and job opportunities were $750.6 million, up nearly $250 million from 2023.
- Within that, job and employment agency scams grew from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024.
- Across all fraud, the FTC received 3 million reports with $15.9 billion in reported losses in 2025.
The FTC's own 2025 figure for job and employment agency scams is published only in its interactive dashboard, which we did not automate, so the latest job-specific dollar totals here are for 2024.
India
India's official cybercrime counts are reported by the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). We could not retrieve a job-scam breakdown from those sources, or from the Parliament replies that quote them, in a form we could read automatically, and we do not use secondary news reports as a substitute. For India we therefore publish no job-scam figure in this issue.
What this report does not contain
An independent survey of recruiters needs primary research, and public data cannot stand in for it, so this issue has no recruiter-survey section. The figures also count reports, which are not all scams and not all losses; many victims never report.
Method
- IC3 figures are quoted from the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report (pages 7 to 8, 25 to 26 and 32 to 33), published April 2026. The percentage and average are our arithmetic on those figures.
- FTC figures are quoted from FTC publications listed below. We did not compute any FTC figure ourselves.
- Reports are self-reported and unverified. Year-on-year changes reflect both scam activity and how many people report. The FTC notes that it did not collect reports during the 2025 government shutdown.
If you are job hunting
Never pay to get a job, buy equipment from the employer, or move money for them. A real employer does not ask for gift cards, crypto or a "deposit." See how to research pay before you judge an offer, and report scams to the FTC and to IC3.
Sources
- FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report, accessed 1 November 2026.
- FTC, testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, March 2026, accessed 1 November 2026.
- FTC press release on 2024 Consumer Sentinel data, March 2025, accessed 1 November 2026.
- FTC Data Spotlight, April 2026, accessed 1 November 2026.
Related pages
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