New Jersey consumers reported losing $314M to scams in 2024
FTC Received 55,969 Fraud Reports from New Jersey Consumers in 2024
NEW JERSEY – The Federal Trade Commission received 55,969 fraud reports from consumers in New Jersey in 2024, according to newly released data.
New Jersey consumers reported losing a total of $314,439,857 to fraud, with a median loss of $500.
The data comes from the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, which analyzes reports submitted by consumers, as well as from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the Better Business Bureau, industry members, and non-profit organizations. Reports from around the country about consumer protection issues—including identity theft, fraud, and other categories—are a key resource for FTC and other law enforcement agencies’ investigations that stop illegal activities and, when possible, provide refunds to consumers.
Across all types of reports, the FTC received a total of 168,588 reports from consumers in New Jersey in 2024.
The top category of reports received from consumers in New Jersey was Credit Bureaus and Information Furnishers; followed by Identity Theft; Imposter Scams; Banks and Lenders; and Online Shopping and Negative Reviews.
A full breakdown of reports received in 2024 is now available on the FTC’s data analysis site at https://ftc.gov/exploredata.
New State Complaint Data
This year, the FTC introduced two new dashboards that provide information about fraud reports at the state and local levels. The first is a dashboard with age-related report information broken down by state. The dashboard shows both overall age numbers for each state and the top subcategories of fraud for each age group in each state.
The second new dashboard provides information on all subcategories of fraud in each state. This dashboard gives users a clearer picture of the types of fraud affecting consumers on a state-by-state basis.
Fraud Losses Up Nationwide
Nationally, consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase from $10 billion in 2023. Consumers reported losing more money to investment scams—$5.7 billion—than any other category in 2024. The second highest reported loss amount came from imposter scams, with reported losses of $2.95 billion.
The FTC received fraud reports from 2.6 million consumers last year, with the most commonly reported being imposter scams, followed by online shopping scams. Business and job opportunities; investment-related reports; and internet services rounded out the top five fraud categories.
The Sentinel database received 6.5 million reports overall in 2024. Of these, more than 1.1 million were identity theft reports received through the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website.
In addition to using consumer reports in its law enforcement investigations, the FTC also shares these reports with federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals across the country. While the FTC does not intervene in individual complaints, Sentinel reports are a vital part of the agency’s law enforcement mission and its work to warn consumers about fraud trends.
