Fraud losses and shame keep people quiet until money is gone. Institutions have a rare advantage: existing trust, regulated channels, and staff trained on escalation paths.
Education campaigns should teach behaviors, pause, verify out-of-band, reject urgency, not only list scam names that change weekly. Pair messages with how your real fraud team contacts members so imposters are easier to spot.
Digital programs can refresh modules quickly when tactics shift; events alone cannot keep pace. Aggregate completion trends help boards and funders see safety education as ongoing hygiene, not a one-time bulletin.
What does the latest FTC fraud data show?
Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase over 2023, according to Federal Trade Commission data released in March 2025. The number of reports stayed about the same, at 2.6 million consumers. What changed was the share of people who lost money: 38% of people who reported a fraud in 2024 said they lost money, up from 27% in 2023.
Investment scams caused the largest reported losses, at $5.7 billion, followed by imposter scams at $2.95 billion. Imposter scams were also the most commonly reported category. Consumers reported losing more money through bank transfers and cryptocurrency than through all other payment methods combined, and email was the most common way scammers made first contact.
For a bank or credit union, those figures point to two priorities: imposters pretending to be someone trusted, and payments that are hard to reverse once sent.
Three habits to teach instead of scam names
Scam names change every few weeks; three habits cover most of them.
Pause. Urgency is the tool. Teach members that any message demanding action in the next hour is a reason to slow down, not speed up.
Verify out of band. Hang up, close the text, and contact the institution, the agency, or the family member using a number you already have, such as the one on the back of a debit card. Never use the phone number or link inside the message.
Never share codes. A one-time passcode is a key to the account. No legitimate caller needs it, including the institution’s own fraud team.
Tell members how you will actually contact them
Imposters are easier to spot when members know what the real institution does. Publish a short, plain list of what your institution will and will never do, for example: we will never ask for your one-time passcode or full password; we will never ask you to move money to a “safe account”; if we call about fraud, you can hang up and call the number on your card.
Repeat that list in statements, the mobile app, branch signage, and every fraud lesson. Consistency is what makes it stick.
When a member has already sent money
Education should also cover the moment after a mistake, because shame keeps people quiet when speed matters most. The steps are simple: contact the institution right away, change passwords on affected accounts, and report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Be honest about limits. Bank transfers, wires, cryptocurrency, and many peer-to-peer payments can be difficult or impossible to reverse once sent. Saying so plainly, without blame, is part of why members trust their institution over a forum thread.