Investment scams on social media
Financial fraud appears on 48 recent papers, but most study fraud by firms or fraud detection in transactions; only 6 carry a social-media, crypto, elderly or victim keyword, and "fraud victimization" on 5. Investment scams run through social platforms now cost households billions. Who falls for them, and what stops them?
What prompted this
Since October 2025, 48 papers carry a scam, investment-fraud, financial-fraud, Ponzi or fraud-victim keyword (18 in finance journals, 16 in AI); "financial fraud" appears on 22 and "fraud victimization" on 5. Only 6 of the 48 also carry a social-media, crypto, elderly, older-adult, romance or victim keyword. "Investor protection" appears on 49 papers, mostly about securities law.
Questions
- Which households lose money to investment scams, and do the losses cluster among people with high financial literacy and confidence rather than low?
- Do warnings from regulators and platforms reduce losses, or do scams simply move?
- How much scam money flows through crypto exchanges, and does exchange compliance change the flow?
Data that could help
Consumer complaint databases (for example the FTC Consumer Sentinel and FBI IC3 reports), bank transaction data with fraud flags, and platform takedown records.
Next step
Analyse the complaint records of one regulator for 2020–2025 by age, scam type and channel, and relate losses to platform enforcement announcements.