Money Transfer Scams in 2026: $16B Lost and How to Protect Your Family

The call comes on a weekday afternoon. A calm voice says he is from the bank's fraud team: someone is trying to drain your account, and you need to move your savings to a safe account right now. A retired teacher in Leeds, a nurse in Houston and a shopkeeper's mother in Kochi all hear versions of the same script. It works because it borrows the language of protection. And once the money has been sent by the account holder herself, getting it back is hard almost everywhere.

The scale: record losses, again

Americans reported losing $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, up from $12.5 billion in 2024, according to Federal Trade Commission data reported by Money Talks News. The FTC received 3 million fraud reports. Investment scams accounted for $7.9 billion, nearly half the total. Bank transfers and payments produced the highest aggregate losses of any payment method, followed by cryptocurrency.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center counted $20.9 billion in losses across just over 1 million complaints in 2025. Crypto-related losses reached about $11.4 billion, with crypto investment fraud alone at $7.2 billion, and people aged 60 and over reported $7.8 billion in losses across all crime types, according to The Block. These are reported figures; the FTC has estimated that true losses, allowing for underreporting, are many times higher.

The five scams that hit transfers hardest

1. Bank and government impersonation

Imposter scams were the most reported fraud type in 2025, with losses of $3.5 billion, nearly triple the 2020 level, according to the FTC. Bank impersonators caused the largest losses among business impersonations, and government impersonation scams took about $920 million. The script is always urgent: your account is compromised, a warrant is pending, move your money now.

2. Investment and "pig butchering" scams

A friendly stranger, often met through social media or a wrong-number text, slowly builds trust and then introduces a trading platform showing impressive returns. Victims send more and more, frequently in crypto, until withdrawals are blocked.

3. Family emergency scams

A message from an unknown number claims to be a son with a broken phone who needs money urgently. With voice cloning, some now arrive as phone calls. Families sending money across borders are particularly exposed, because they are used to urgent requests from abroad.

4. Fake transfer providers and rate offers

Social media ads promise unusually good exchange rates for remittances. The sender pays, and the money never arrives. Always check that a provider is licensed in your country. Our guide to the real cost of sending money home explains what normal rates look like, so an offer that is too good stands out.

5. Romance and job scams

Both rely on emotional investment and end with requests to send money, buy gift cards or "pay a fee" to release wages.

Every scam on this list ends the same way: the victim is persuaded to press send themselves.

Authorised push payment fraud and the UK model

That last point matters legally. When a criminal takes money from your account without permission, it is unauthorised fraud, and banks usually refund it. When you are tricked into sending it yourself, it is authorised push payment (APP) fraud, and in many countries you bear the loss.

The UK changed that. Since 7 October 2024, banks and payment firms sending faster payments must reimburse eligible APP scam victims up to £85,000, with the cost split between the sending and receiving firms. In the 18 months to 31 March 2026, 88% of money lost to in-scope APP scams, about £316 million, was reimbursed, and 82% of claims were closed within five business days, according to the Payment Systems Regulator's dashboard. Firms may apply an excess of up to £100, and only around 3% of claims were rejected for lack of consumer caution.

The problem has not gone away. UK Finance reported APP fraud losses of £576.4 million in 2025, up 19%, with investment scams the largest category at £221.5 million. Reimbursement shifts the cost to banks; it does not stop the criminals. And it does not cover cross-border transfers or most crypto purchases. Our explainer on payment rails shows why protections differ so much between them.

How to protect your family

The most effective defences are simple and social, not technical:

1. Agree a family code word. Anyone asking for urgent money must use it. This defeats most emergency and voice-clone scams.
2. Hang up and call back. Banks and tax agencies never ask you to move money to a safe account. Call the number on the back of your card, from a different phone if possible.
3. Slow down. Urgency is the scammer's main tool. A real bank will still be there in an hour.
4. Never pay a stranger in crypto, gift cards or wire transfers. These are the methods scammers prefer because they are hard to reverse.
5. Check the provider. Use licensed transfer services and type their address yourself rather than clicking an ad.
6. Talk to older relatives. People over 60 reported $7.8 billion in losses to the FBI in 2025. A ten-minute conversation about these scripts is worth more than any app.

If it has already happened

• Contact your bank or provider immediately and ask them to recall the payment.
• Report it: in the US to the FTC and the FBI's IC3, in the UK to your bank and Action Fraud, elsewhere to the national police cybercrime unit.
• Keep screenshots, phone numbers, wallet addresses and transaction IDs.
• Be wary of "recovery" services that contact you. They are often the same criminals.

Scams will keep evolving with AI tools. The good news is that the core of every script, urgency and secrecy, has not changed in decades, and neither has the best defence: pausing and checking with someone you trust.

This article is general information. If you have been scammed, contact your bank and local authorities as soon as possible.

More guidesUAE guidesUK guides

About this researchMuffinPay InsightsIndependent analysis of stablecoins, CBDCs, cross-border payments and digital public infrastructure. Every figure is linked to its source. Read our editorial standards →