BY CHRISTI BAKER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, ASSET FUNDERS NETWORK, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DAN SEGAL, VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCIAL HEALTH, JPMORGANCHASE AND ROBERT MASCIO, DIRECTOR, FINRA INVESTOR EDUCATION FOUNDATION
SEPTEMBER 2026

AFN Short Take is a blog series highlighting insights and perspectives from recent AFN programming events.

A scam can drain savings, home equity, or a retirement account—all built up over years—in a single transaction. The losses often compound: weakened credit, restricted access to banking, and feelings of stress and shame that can last long-term.

For philanthropy, this is an overlooked asset-preservation problem, making it a unique and high-impact opportunity. There are multiple areas where philanthropy can advance the field, including educating consumers, supporting the development and scale of prevention tools, and catalyzing cross-sector collaboration and innovation, which is especially important given that the scale of the problem exceeds what any single institution can address on its own.

On June 30, 2026, AFN hosted a national webinar exploring philanthropy’s role in preserving assets and combating scams, where Dan Segal of JPMorganChase and Robert Mascio of FINRA Investor Education Foundation participated in a panel alongside Carla Sanchez-Adams of the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), and moderated by Naomi Stanhaus of RRF Foundation for Aging, a national funder focused on older adults’ economic security. What follows are some of the main topics discussed, including the scope of the problem, how difficult it is for consumers to navigate, and where philanthropy can make a meaningful difference.

The Scale Is Large—And Larger Than Reporting Shows

The Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) projects that 82 percent of American adults will encounter a scam in 2026. In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported consumers losing $15.9 billion, with impersonation scams, in which someone poses as a trusted institution like law enforcement or an individual, the most frequently reported category at $3.5 billion. Those figures reflect reported losses only.

United States of Scams, a report from a probability-based survey led by Gallup and Stop Scams Alliance and a coalition of partners, including the FINRA Foundation and JPMorganChase, estimates U.S. losses in 2025 closer to a staggering $68 billion. The gap between $15.9 billion and $68 billion matters more than either figure alone, because it could indicate how much of this problem goes unreported. Gallup/Stop Scams Alliance found that only about one in ten people (10 percent) who lose money to a scam report it to the FTC, with shame, fear, and uncertainty about where to turn adding to the silence. As the bipartisan Congressional Stop Scams Caucus continues to emphasize, effective policy must be grounded in reliable data—and philanthropy can support that effort by providing education, awareness, and tools to consumers to encourage better reporting and galvanize change.

Who Is Affected

Scams affect people of all ages, but the consequences are not evenly distributed. Older adults tend to lose more and have less capacity to absorb the losses: fixed incomes, fewer working years to rebuild, and more home equity and retirement savings exposed in a single incident. The risk is compounded for those who are isolated, unfamiliar with digital tools, or are experiencing cognitive decline.

No single individual characteristic appears to be driving susceptibility. The Gallup/Stop Scams Alliance data indicates that the lowest-income group was more than twice as likely to have experienced a scam than the highest-income group. Other studies indicate that scam vulnerability is highly linked to experiential and sometimes transient characteristics such as stress, desire, or loneliness. These factors that many scammers target are often harder to measure than demographics and income. For asset funders interested in combating fraud through education, prevention and recovery efforts, it is imperative that these services reach every age group.

Financial Loss Is Only Part of the Harm

Being victimized once opens what practitioners call a vulnerability window. Victims are frequently retargeted by criminals claiming they can help recover lost funds, all the while posing as law enforcement, a financial institution, or a consumer support group. Among participants in FightCybercrime.org’s peer support program, 43.9 percent indicated they encountered two or more cybercriminals before seeking help.

Several studies have documented the emotional impacts of fraud victimization. FINRA Foundation research found nearly two in three victims (nearly 67 percent) reported experiencing at least one non-financial cost of fraud to a serious degree, including severe stress, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and depression. The Gallup/Stop Scams Alliance study found that roughly 73 percent of fraud victims report a negative effect on mental health. A social media analysis performed by Give an Hour found embarrassment, guilt, and isolation in the first three months, with exhaustion, depression, and fear still present nearly a year later.

Rebuilding after fraud involves more than money. For fraud victims, four needs surface consistently:

  • Reporting navigation, where and how to report
  • Financial counseling, often for people managing acute instability for the first time
  • Legal and tax counseling, since a drained retirement account can trigger a taxable event on top of the loss
  • Mental health support, to help overcome the emotional impact of victimization
Protections Vary Widely by Scam Payment Type

How a scam victim is made whole depends heavily on how the money left the account and which payment method was used, in addition to whether and how quickly the consumer reported the loss. Whether or not the payment occurred as an unauthorized transaction (the customer did not initiate) or as an authorized transaction (criminals manipulate victims into authorizing transfers to accounts controlled by the criminals), as well as when the loss was reported, dictates the different laws that apply and the ability to trace the funds.

Credit cards generally carry the strongest protections but are not the most common channel for scam losses. Many everyday electronic payments (peer-to-peer app transfers, debit card purchases, ATM withdrawals, and certain prepaid and payroll card transactions) are covered by the federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA). EFTA can protect consumers from unauthorized transactions reported in required timeframes, but it typically does not cover transfers the consumer initiated.

Many losses occur through wire transfers, which may not have built-in transaction limits, can be done domestically and internationally, and are mostly governed by state law through the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Wire transfers allow funds to move instantly between accounts, giving banks and victims very little time to intercept fraudulent requests, which is why banks often require numerous consumer verifications to authorize the transaction. Checks also fall under state law, and the time allowed to dispute a forged or altered check can be shortened by agreement in an account contract—sometimes substantially, from a year to days.

For crypto and stablecoin transactions, consumer protections and liability rules remain less settled and can vary widely based on the product structure and jurisdiction. At the same time, AI-enabled scams are making these losses more frequent and more severe. Criminals can use AI to convincingly impersonate institutional experts, tailor phishing messages at scale, and pressure victims into acting quickly. This is especially dangerous with crypto, where funds can move across borders in seconds, and transactions are typically difficult—or impossible—to reverse.

In all cases, faster reporting might help stop additional transfers before more money leaves the account. Rules differ by payment type, authorization, jurisdiction, and contract terms—resulting in no one-size-fits-all single solution for consumers. The varying legal landscape illustrates the importance of investments to scale voluntary assistance programs and support services that help consumers navigate their financial futures.

Where Philanthropic Investment Is Taking Shape

In a session poll, more than 60 percent of funders in the webinar said they were curious to learn more; fewer than 30 percent were already investing in this area. Four approaches are emerging.

Cross-sector coalitions. Scam activity is coordinated across many different channels and institutions, and the response increasingly reflects that. JPMorganChase is a founding member of the Aspen Institute’s National Task Force for Fraud and Scam Prevention, its recently announced Leadership Group on Scam Prevention, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s North America Chapter, and the Anti-Scam Philanthropic Collaborative.

Data and knowledge building. One major challenge practitioners and policymakers face in combating scams is a lack of data, largely due to significant under-reporting. Rigorous, representative research can help provide a clearer picture and a stronger evidence base for case-making and better solutions. To address this, JPMorganChase and the FINRA Foundation both supported the Stop Scams Alliance and Gallup in releasing the most comprehensive research on scam prevalence in the U.S. to date.

Direct service and implementation. In 2026, JPMorganChase announced nearly $14 million in grants to support prevention efforts by organizations driving consumer education, real-time transaction blocking, and scam-checker tools that let consumers test a suspicious message before acting.

The FINRA Foundation has led efforts around education, victim support, and emotional recovery, in partnership with a variety of national and community-based non-profit organizations. Among its collaborators are FightCybercrime.org, which runs free ten-week peer support cohorts for romance and crypto scam survivors, and Give an Hour, which provides peer support for fraud victims and helps train mental health professionals to support those impacted by fraud.

Importantly, not all efforts require national scale. As noted by Stanhaus on the webinar, place-based funders comfortable in direct service may find victim support a natural fit: funding peer support cohorts, victim advocates, or clinician training locally.

Measurement of progress is evolving. Prevention is hard to measure, and is made harder where the base rate is uncertain. Approaches that interact directly with transactions, such as real-time transaction blocking, produce the clearest data: transactions stopped, dollars prevented from moving, false-positive rates users report back. Other approaches, such as scam-checkers and consumer education, rely on adoption and self-reported behavior change. In addition to measurement at the individual level, population assessments remain necessary to gauge how conditions are changing at a societal level.

Implications for Funders

No single intervention or institution will solve this. Five entry points stand out for funders weighing their first commitment.

  1. Fund across the full arc. Prevention, real-time disruption, response, and victim support each require investment that builds scale. As practitioners and advocates have observed, education matters, but it alone is unlikely to close the gap.
  2. Scam prevention equals asset protection. Mental health support, legal, tax, and credit counseling, and financial coaching can keep a single loss from cascading. Peer support models can be designed to move participants from recovery toward advocacy on behalf of consumers.
  3. Support better data. With roughly one in ten losses reported, improved reporting and data capture for measurement is a precondition for stronger program design and policy solutions.
  4. Understand where protections are weakest. Varying rules with different payment types and open questions around newer products leave victims unsure of next steps.
  5. Invest in coordination. Coalitions, shared measurement, and cross-sector convenings are needed to reduce the current fragmented response to match a coordinated threat.

“Protecting people from scams and asset losses that can derail years of wealth building is fundamental to building long-term economic security and a just economy,” Stanhaus said in closing.

Scams intersect with most of AFN’s issue areas. No single funder can cover that range, but well-placed commitments now can shape how the response develops.

Watch the full webinar recording and explore the resources shared by our speakers here. AFN thanks co-sponsors RRF Foundation for Aging and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and Philanthropy New York for partnering on this conversation.