Fraud Nation? Americans Hit With 100 Scam Attempts Every Month — Tops In The World

Experts say ‘trust nothing era’ causing consumer confidence to plunge

NEW YORK — Americans are being bombarded with fraudulent messages at a rate that seemingly dwarfs the rest of the world. New research reveals that the average American encounters roughly 100 scam attempts every single month, significantly more than people in most other countries.

A survey of 10,500 adults across 11 countries found that Americans navigate nine scam calls, nine fraudulent emails, and seven suspicious text messages each week. That’s 25 separate scam encounters in just seven days. For context, people in Singapore deal with only 40 scam attempts per month, while Australians face about 52.

Brits come closest to matching the American experience, encountering around 84 scam messages monthly. But even that falls short of the steady flood hitting American inboxes, voicemails, and text threads.

Beyond active messages, the spam problem has created a backlog crisis. Americans and Brits currently have more than 350 emails sitting in their spam folders right now, according to research conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Ping Identity. Indonesians, by comparison, average fewer than 154.

Your Phone and Social Media Accounts Aren’t Safe Either

Fraudsters have infiltrated virtually every corner of digital life. Social media users around the globe report receiving an average of five spam messages per week on their accounts, adding another layer of exhaustion for Americans already juggling scam calls, emails, and texts.

When a suspicious message arrives, most people take immediate action. About 53% of respondents delete fraudulent messages right away, while 52% block the sender. However, roughly a quarter of people in India and the United Arab Emirates will attempt to verify the sender’s address before taking action.

Phone calls present a different challenge. Almost half of Indians (46%) and more than one-third of Brits (35%) will answer calls labeled “potential spam,” compared to 31% of Americans and just 22% of Swedes.

Most People Can’t Tell What’s Real Anymore

Perhaps more troubling than the sheer volume of scams is how unprepared people feel to handle them. Only 23% of those surveyed said they’re “very confident” in their ability to determine whether something is legitimate or fraudulent.

Compared to five years ago, three-quarters of respondents expressed greater concern about the security of their personal and private information. About 25% said saving passwords or payment details on social media made them feel especially at risk.

Financial fraud dominates the list of worries, with 46% of respondents citing it as their primary concern, followed by personal data breaches at 25%.

Darryl Jones, Vice President of Consumer Segment Strategy at Ping Identity, pointed to a fundamental security problem. “According to the survey, respondents use just 12 unique passwords for work, and 17 for personal accounts, which is not only a huge inconvenience but exposes significant risk, as passwords are the number one cause of breaches,” Jones said. “Passwords alone are not enough to protect your data; they’re easily compromised, and attackers are even impersonating multi-factor authentication requests.”

Jones recommended adopting passkeys, which store a private key on a device and are protected by biometrics like face or touch ID, as a safer and simpler alternative.

AI Is Making Scams More Convincing

As technology advances, fraud methods are becoming more sophisticated and personalized. Survey respondents identified AI-driven phishing as their top concern for future scams at 39%. These attacks use personalized messages crafted from data scraped from social media or web browsing history to trick people into revealing sensitive information.

Fake apps mimicking legitimate services came in second at 38%, followed by deepfake attacks at 32%, which use AI-generated video or audio to impersonate celebrities, public figures, or CEOs. Voice cloning scams rounded out the top concerns at 31%, using recordings of friends or family members to create convincing fraudulent calls. Another 29% pointed to synthetic identity fraud, where criminals create fake identities from a mix of real and invented data.

Across the globe, 23% of people surveyed have already fallen victim to some type of fraud, scam, or identity theft. Among those victims, financial identity fraud was the most common type of attack, affecting 25%, while account takeovers hit 21%.

Part of the problem may lie in password management habits. Respondents reported forgetting or misplacing passwords (38%) more often than they use multi-factor authentication (30%).

Jones described the current moment as a turning point in consumer trust. “Consumer confidence in global brands is eroding fast. We’ve entered a ‘trust nothing’ era, where people are questioning every call, message, and even the companies they once relied on,” he said. “The challenge now is for organizations to prove they deserve that trust. And that starts with stronger, smarter identity protection.”

With scammers refining their tactics and Americans already facing more fraudulent messages than any other country surveyed, the distance between threat and protection continues to grow. For now, Americans remain at the center of a global fraud crisis with no slowdown in sight.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and not legal, financial, or cybersecurity advice.

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