Ever received a message from an unknown number telling you something has happened to your bank account, and that you need to click a mysterious-looking link to fix it? That's just one example of a scam text — a message that attempts to trick the receiver into giving away personal information or money — and Americans collectively lost almost $330 million through them in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Using FTC data analyzed by USAFacts, Visual Capitalist created the graphic below to illustrate just how much money different types of scam messages cost Americans in 2022.

Key Findings:

• The type of scam text that cost Americans the most overall was miscellaneous investments and investment advice, with a whopping $149.5 million lost across 5,600 incidents.

• Next on the list are business impostors and romance scams, which cost people in the US $35 million and $33.7 million, respectively.

• Business impostor messages were the most common type of scam text overall, with 104,900 reports made in 2022.

Click image to enlarge

Via Visual Capitalist.