What to know about the AP/FRONTLINE investigation into scam victims

Scams in the U.S. have surged to a record high, and most people have been targeted. Americans reported a record $15.9 billion in losses last year to the Federal Trade Commission — a 25% increase from 2024, and likely a huge undercount. The FTC estimates that real losses in 2024 were close to $200 billion, or about $550 million every day.

An investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE found that despite attempts by both the Trump administration and Congress to fight scams, victims still have little recourse. The investigation included interviews with 58 victims.

Here are other takeaways:

— Virtually nobody is immune to scams. Ninety-eight percent of Americans suspect they have been targeted with scam messages, many every day, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three in 10 said they have personally lost money or information to scams. The 58 victims interviewed by the AP/FRONTLINE were aged 32 to 90, lost several thousand dollars to $4 million each and ranged from IT professionals and academics to people just trying to make ends meet. Several said they contemplated suicide, and two attempted it. Only one got money back, from her bank.

— After the scam, many victims end up paying more in taxes. The IRS often demands that retirees, including scam victims, pay taxes on funds they withdrew from tax-deferred accounts like their retirement savings. Before 2018, victims of theft or fraud could sometimes deduct losses incurred from their taxable income. But under a provision of the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, made permanent in 2025, personal losses from many common scams are not eligible for tax breaks. That means victims can owe taxes after money was stolen from them.

— Some victims are also penalized by banks that blame them or even accuse them of being complicit. Victims described having their accounts abruptly frozen or cancelled, along with demands for repayment on loans and legal fees. Earlier this year, American Bankers Association Chair Kenneth Kelly said banks spend “time, money and significant resources” trying to stop fraud, which usually refers to unauthorized transactions. But under current U.S. law, financial institutions are rarely liable for transactions their customers authorize.

— The U.S. lags behind several other countries in protecting consumers. Since late 2024, financial services companies in the United Kingdom have generally had to reimburse clients tricked into sending money to scammers. And trained social workers sometimes visit scam victims. The European Union is also rolling out rules that make financial institutions potentially liable for scammed funds if they don’t put in adequate fraud protections, and its Digital Services Act requires platforms to quickly act on reported scam content. In Australia, financial institutions, telecommunications companies and digital platforms can be fined or forced to compensate victims if they don’t do enough to prevent and respond to scam activity. And in Singapore, banks and telecom companies may have to repay victims of certain phishing scams if they fail to implement required safeguards. Police can temporarily restrict bank transfers of someone who they believe to be a victim, and they sit physically with bank and e-commerce platform staff in a national anti-scam center.

— The rise of cryptocurrency has helped fuel scams because it is a form of digital cash that can be hard to trace to its real owners. China bans crypto-related businesses, while the European Union requires licensing, consumer protections and broad disclosures. But while the Trump administration has backed some cryptocurrency regulation, it has also promised to halt “aggressive enforcement actions and regulatory overreach.” the GENIUS Act signed by President Donald Trump last year to regulate some cryptocurrencies did not require companies to return stolen funds to fraud victims - a gap that consumer advocates, prosecutors and some lawmakers have criticized. Unlike bank deposits, crypto assets are not backed by federal insurance. Many cryptocurrency exchanges operate across borders and through offshore entities where U.S. laws may not apply.

— The U.S. government is waking up to the threat. Congress is considering more than a dozen bills to prevent scams, including one to establish a centralized website for complaints and another to require disclosures on deepfakes and other AI-generated content. The Justice Department in November unveiled a strike force to fight scam centers in Southeast Asia, and the Treasury has levied sanctions on them. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order in March directing the attorney general to prioritize the prosecution of scammers and to submit a recommendation for a program to restore money to victims.

— Fledgling efforts to help victims get money back aren’t keeping up with the tsunami of those who have lost it. Efforts are still piecemeal: At least 13 federal agencies touch on different aspects of these crimes, according to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office. The FBI’s Operation Level Up has stopped about 8,500 people from falling for scams over almost two years by calling them to intervene, according to former FBI Financial Crimes Section chief Rebecca Keithley. But that’s a small fraction of victims, with the FBI receiving nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints a day on average through its IC3.gov portal.

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This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes the documentary “Scammed,” premiering Tuesday, Sept. 29, on PBS and online.

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The Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

A text message from a scammer who stole $575,000 from Brian Glick is displayed on Glick's phone as he poses for a portrait at his home, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Ballston Lake, N.Y. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Alice Lin, who fought back to recover some of the $720,000 she and her late husband had saved over their lifetime which was stolen by an online scammer, sits at her computer at home, Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Alhambra, Calif. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Simon, who was targeted by a scammer that stole $800,000 from his retirement savings and asked not to be identified by his full name because he's too ashamed to tell most of his family about the crime, looks out a window from his home, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in southeastern New York. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Chris Colocousis looks at a cryptocurrency deposit he made as part of a scam where $405,000 was stolen from his retirement savings, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at his home in Raynham, Mass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Debra Fox, who had $58,000 stolen from her in a romance scam, looks at her phone, Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at her home in Arvada, Colo. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

If Kansas megachurch pastor and Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton manages to pull off an upset victory in his race for a U.S. Senate seat, he'd join a very small group. In the past 100 years, only incumbent Raphael Warnock of Georgia has accomplished what Hamilton aspires to do: serve in the Senate while continuing to lead his congregation.

Warnock has continued to preach regularly as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since his election as Georgia's first Black senator in 2021.

Hamilton has made clear that if he wins, he would like to continue as senior pastor — preaching 12 to 18 times a year — at the Church of the Resurrection. With roughly 25,000 members in the Kansas City area, it's the nation's largest United Methodist church.

Warnock, in a video on U.S. Senate Democrats' Facebook page, discusses how he melds his political and pastoral careers.

"They are both about working for people even as you walk alongside them," he said. “I have always been engaged in a kind of ministry that takes you far beyond the sanctuary to the streets, far beyond preaching to the public square.”

Aside from Warnock, only a few other ordained ministers have been in the Senate in recent decades, but none who strived to simultaneously lead a church of their own.

John Danforth, who served from 1976 to 1995 as a Republican senator from Missouri, is an Episcopal priest who also worked as an attorney and diplomat. In 2004, he presided over Ronald Reagan's funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

Hamilton said in an interview that Danforth has been an inspiration and mentor for him.

“I talked to Jack before I got into this. I actually phoned him up and just said, ‘Hey, help me understand, how does this fit together?’” Hamilton said. “He and I share a lot about trying to bring people together, as opposed to dividing people, trying to lead from the center.”

Tim Hutchinson, an Arkansas Republican, was a Baptist pastor before entering politics in 1985. After serving in the state legislature and the U.S. House, he served one term in the Senate from 1997 to 2003.

Still serving in the Senate is James Lankford, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who has represented Oklahoma in the chamber since 2015. Before entering politics, he was president of a Baptist-run conference center and youth camp.

Throughout U.S. history, it's been far more common to have still-active pastors serving in the House. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., for example, served 13 terms representing the New York City neighborhood of Harlem while he was pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Other Black civil rights leaders who combined pastoring with congressional careers included Walter E. Fauntroy, who was Washington, D.C.'s delegate to the House, and William Gray, a pastor in Philadelphia before serving in the House from 1979 to 1991.

Democrat Emanuel Cleaver, who has represented Kansas City, Missouri, in the House since 2005, was pastor of St. James United Methodist Church from 1972 to 2009. His district, just across the Kansas-Missouri state line from Hamilton's home base, has been reconfigured by GOP state legislators to jeopardize his chances of reelection.

On the Republican side of the U.S. House, conservative white Baptist pastors who have served in recent decades include Mark Harris of North Carolina, Jody Hice of Georgia and Ron Lewis of Kentucky.

One of the most prominent clerics in Congress was a Catholic — Jesuit priest Robert Drinan. A Massachusetts Democrat, he served in the House from 1971 to 1981 before stepping down. He dropped his reelection bid in 1980 after Pope John Paul II said Catholic priests would no longer be allowed to hold political office.

Drinan was elected on a platform opposing the Vietnam War, and had moderate views on abortion and birth control that differed from official Catholic teaching. He was the first member of Congress to call for Richard Nixon's impeachment — not due to the Watergate scandal, but rather what Drinan viewed as the administration’s undeclared war against Cambodia.

There is no official count of all the clergy who ever served in Congress, but overwhelmingly they have been Protestants. Drinan is one of only two Catholic priests elected to Congress; no rabbi or imam has served there.

The first speaker of the House, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, was a Lutheran minister. He served in Congress from 1789-1797.

The first African American to serve in Congress, the Rev. Hiram Rhodes Revels, was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was elected in 1870 by the Mississippi Legislature to fill a vacant Senate seat as a Republican.

This year, several members of the clergy from each major party have been nominated to run for the U.S. House. The Democrats include the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a prominent Baptist pastor in Dallas, and two women currently serving in Iowa’s legislature — the Revs. Lindsay James, a Presbyterian chaplain, and Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor.

On the Republican side, at least three current or former pastors – all evangelicals – have been nominated: pastors John Elleson, running in a Democratic stronghold in Illinois; Mark Harris, seeking reelection in North Carolina; and former pastor Tim Walberg, seeking reelection in Michigan.

AP reporter John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, D-N.Y., sits with Vietnam War protesters on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, on June 25, 1969. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, File)

FILE - Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Former Massachusetts Rep. Father Robert Drinan holds a copy of the 1974 impeachment report of President Nixon while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 8, 1998. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - The Rev. Raphael Warnock delivers a sermon during a church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Sunday Jan. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)