Americans lost $470 million to scams that started with a text message in 2024, and the Federal Trade Commission is now flagging five fraud schemes that continue to spread through phones across the country. The cons range from fake jury-duty threats and bogus loan offers to phishing texts disguised as package deliveries, traffic violations, and even job opportunities. Each one exploits the same habit: people read and respond to texts far more readily than emails, giving scammers a direct line to personal data and bank accounts.
How fake government texts exploit a growing trust gap
The reason these five scams keep gaining ground has less to do with criminal ingenuity than with timing. State courts, toll authorities, and the U.S. Postal Service have all expanded their use of SMS notifications in recent years, training people to expect legitimate alerts on their phones. Scammers ride that expectation. When a text arrives claiming a package was missed or a toll is unpaid, it looks like dozens of real messages a person has already received and acted on.
The FTC identified the top text scam categories of 2024 by hand-coding a random sample of 1,000 consumer reports that included written narratives. Fake package-delivery messages, fake bank fraud alerts, fake unpaid-toll notices, and “wrong number” texts topped the list. Consumer reporting systems, which depend on victims recognizing a scam and filing a complaint, have not kept pace with the volume of these messages, especially in areas where government agencies recently began sending real SMS updates for court dates, toll balances, or shipping status.
Five schemes the FTC traced through $470 million in losses
The $470 million loss figure comes from the FTC’s own data on scams initiated by text in 2024, published in an agency press release. That number captures only what victims reported; actual losses are almost certainly higher. Here is how the five active schemes work and what the agency says people can do to protect themselves.
Fake jury-duty calls and texts are among the most aggressive. Scammers impersonate U.S. Marshals or local police and tell recipients they missed jury duty, then threaten immediate arrest unless a fine is paid on the spot. These messages often reference a made-up case number and claim a warrant has already been issued. The FTC has warned that courts do not demand payment via gift cards, payment apps, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers for jury service, and its guidance on threatening arrest messages stresses that legitimate officials will not ask for sensitive information or money over text.
Another variation arrives by phone or email but is closely related to the text-message schemes. In these cases, scammers claim the recipient missed jury duty and must pay a fine immediately to avoid contempt of court. The FTC’s separate alert on a missed jury-duty demand underscores a key point: courts send official notices by mail, not by surprise text, and they do not threaten arrest or insist on payment before someone can verify the situation. Anyone who receives such a threat is advised to hang up or delete the message and contact the court directly using a phone number from the court’s own website, not a number provided by the caller or texter.
Loan-text scams take a quieter approach. An unsolicited SMS claims to follow up on a $10,000 loan application or preapproval the recipient never submitted. Victims who reply or call the number are asked to hand over Social Security numbers, bank details, or photos of IDs, opening the door to identity theft and fraudulent withdrawals. Some messages include links to convincing but fake lender websites designed to capture login credentials for existing bank accounts. The FTC’s consumer alert on fake loan offers advises people not to reply to or click links in any unsolicited loan message and to treat surprise preapprovals as red flags rather than opportunities.
Package-delivery texts impersonate USPS and claim a delivery was missed or postage is owed. The message may say a package cannot be delivered until a small fee is paid, or that a label is incomplete and needs to be updated. The links route to look-alike websites that copy postal logos and color schemes but are built to harvest credit card numbers, passwords, and personal information. Traffic-violation texts use a similar playbook: they display an official-looking hearing notice image, include a fake case number, and present a QR code that supposedly lets the recipient pay to avoid a court appearance. Clicking or scanning sends people to spoofed payment portals that collect card or bank data.
Task scams round out the list. These gamified job offers typically arrive via text or WhatsApp and promise easy money for completing simple online tasks such as rating products, liking videos, or boosting app downloads. Victims are added to group chats where others appear to post screenshots of large payouts, creating social pressure to keep going. A dashboard shows fake earnings climbing, but at a certain point the victim is told to deposit real money, often in cryptocurrency, to unlock the next payout tier or qualify for a bonus. No payout ever arrives. The FTC’s internal Data Spotlight on these gamified job schemes documented rising reported losses, with first-half 2024 volume estimates showing the trend accelerating as scammers refined their scripts and targeted people looking for side income.
Gaps in the data and what to do right now
Several questions remain open. The FTC’s 2024 text-scam analysis does not break losses down by state or region, so there is no public data confirming whether states that recently adopted government SMS notifications saw disproportionate fraud. Age and demographic breakdowns for jury-duty and loan-text victims have not been released either, making it hard to know which populations are most at risk or whether particular communities are being singled out. The task-scam reports cite hand-coded samples but do not include verified cryptocurrency transaction volumes, leaving the true scale of crypto losses to job scams unquantified.
Baseline data on texting behavior that the FTC cited comes from an FCC Consumer Advisory Committee report published in August 2022. No updated comparison of text open and response rates has been released alongside the 2024 scam figures, so it is unclear whether people have become more skeptical of unsolicited texts over time. Without that context, regulators cannot easily tell whether rising dollar losses reflect more sophisticated fraud, higher average payments, or simply more people choosing to report what happened.
Despite those gaps, the agency’s advice is straightforward. First, treat any unexpected text about money, packages, fines, or job offers as suspicious until proven otherwise. Do not click links, scan QR codes, or call phone numbers included in these messages. Instead, navigate to official websites by typing addresses directly into a browser or using a trusted app, and use verified contact information to check whether a notice is real.
Second, slow down when a message uses pressure tactics. Threats of arrest, demands to keep a conversation secret, countdown timers, and claims that an offer is “available today only” are all hallmarks of fraud. Real courts, lenders, and government agencies give people time to respond and do not punish them for asking questions.
Finally, report suspicious texts to the FTC and to your mobile carrier by forwarding them to 7726 (SPAM), when possible. Individual reports may feel small, but they help investigators spot patterns, shut down fraudulent websites, and warn others before more money is lost. Until better data and stronger authentication systems catch up with the reality of how people use their phones, skepticism remains the most reliable defense against text-based scams.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
