TL;DR: Where a scam begins changes how costly it is. UK Finance says online origins were 66% of APP scam cases but 32% of losses, while telecommunications were 17% of cases and 28% of losses. In Australia, Scamwatch phone-call scams averaged about A$36,000 per loss report in 2025, against about A$8,300 for online scams. The FBI’s IC3 and Canada’s CAFC do not publish contact-method counts in the 2025 sources we reviewed.
“How did the scammer reach you?” is one of the most-asked questions in scam statistics, and one of the least consistently answered. This page brings together the 2025 origin and contact-method figures that the UK, Australian and US agencies actually publish.
UK: where APP scams originate
| Origin | Share of cases | Share of losses | Loss share vs case share* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online | 66% | 32% | 0.48x |
| Telecommunications | 17% | 28% | 1.65x |
| 1% | 7% | 7.00x | |
| Other | 5% | 8% | 1.60x |
| Unknown | 11% | 24% | 2.18x |
* Computed by us: share of losses divided by share of cases. A value above 1 means the origin is over-represented in losses compared with its share of cases. UK Finance counts “cases” as cards or accounts defrauded, not individual people. Shares do not need to total exactly 100 because of rounding.
Australia: contact method, Scamwatch 2025
| Contact method | Reports with loss | Losses | Average per loss report* | Median loss | All reports (where stated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online (internet, apps, social media, forums) | 19,169 | A$158.5m | A$8,300 | A$400 | not stated |
| Phone call | 2,012 | A$72.5m | A$36,000 | A$3,800 | not stated |
| 4,329 | A$57.9m | A$13,400 | not stated | 84,861 | |
| In person | 870 | A$25.3m | A$29,100 | not stated | not stated |
| Text message | 1,603 | A$17.9m | A$11,200 | not stated | 29,058 |
| 218 | A$2.7m | A$12,400 | not stated | not stated | |
| Total of the six methods | 28,201 | A$334.8m | A$11,900 | A$400 (all Scamwatch) | 200,675 (all Scamwatch) |
* Computed by us by dividing published losses by published reports with a loss, rounded. The National Anti-Scam Centre notes that social media, website and mobile app scams are grouped under “Online”. The phone-call loss decline from 2024 is given as 32.4% on one page and 32.0% on another. Text-message reports fell 62.4%, from 77,365 in 2024 to 29,058 in 2025.
United States and Canada
The FTC’s 2025 testimony says text messages were the top contact method by number of reports and that social media contact accounted for over $2 billion in aggregate losses in fiscal year 2025; it gives no loss figures for phone, text, email, website or mail. In the FTC’s 2024 data for older adults, phone-initiated fraud had a median individual loss of $2,210 versus $650 for social media, and social media produced the highest aggregate losses. The FBI’s IC3 report describes common first-contact channels (text messages, social media, advertisements, dating applications) without counts. The CAFC top-10 page gives no contact-method breakdown.
For examples of each route, see a spoofed-number call alert from City of London Police, Ofcom’s rules to block scam texts, Australia’s “Unverified” text label and redirect systems that send users to fraud sites. Our explainers on caller ID spoofing and smishing cover the mechanics, and the free digital footprint check shows what contact details of yours are already out there.
How we compiled this data
UK figures are from the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2026 press release (APP origin shares). Australian figures are from the National Anti-Scam Centre Targeting Scams Report 2025, Scamwatch tables (contact method, pages 35 to 36). US figures are from the FTC testimony of 2026 and the FTC Protecting Older Consumers report.
Definitions differ: UK Finance counts bank-confirmed APP cases, Scamwatch counts reports to Scamwatch only (not the combined A$2.18 billion), and FTC figures are consumer reports. We did not convert currencies or compare countries directly.
Want to know what is exposed about you personally? Run our free digital footprint checker or read the what to do after a scam guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which contact method causes the biggest UK scam losses per case?
Telecommunications. UK Finance reports it as 17% of APP cases but 28% of APP losses in 2025, compared with online at 66% of cases and 32% of losses.
How much did Australians lose to phone scams in 2025?
Scamwatch reports A$72.5 million lost across 2,012 reports with a loss, a median loss of A$3,800 and about A$36,000 per loss report by our calculation.
Did scam texts fall in Australia?
Text-message scam reports to Scamwatch fell 62.4%, from 77,365 in 2024 to 29,058 in 2025, though losses rose from A$14.0 million to A$17.9 million.
Why is there no US or Canadian contact-method table?
The official sources we reviewed (FBI IC3 report, FTC testimony, CAFC top-10 page) do not give contact-method counts and losses in a comparable form.
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Sources
- UK Finance: Annual Fraud Report 2026, press release
- National Anti-Scam Centre: Targeting Scams Report 2025
- National Anti-Scam Centre: Continued action critical to combat fraud (Mar 30, 2026)
- FTC: Statement before the Joint Economic Committee on the rising scam economy (2026)
- FTC: Protecting Older Consumers report (Dec 2025)
- FBI IC3: Internet Crime Report 2025