Analysis: Michigan families lose billions to online scams

By Chrystal Blair • Michigan News Connection

A new report found online scams and cybercrime cost Michigan families more than $2.5 billion last year or just over $650 per household.

Michigan’s estimated scam losses jumped nearly 57% from 2024. Consumer watchdogs said artificial intelligence is making scams more convincing, while cryptocurrency fraud continues driving losses.

Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy for the Consumer Federation of America, said the actual cost is far higher than official reports suggest.

“We were able to take estimations from the Department of Justice, among others, and sort of come up with this conservative estimate that 14% of people are reporting, which is what the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated,” Winters explained.

Winters suggested if you receive an urgent message demanding money or personal information, pause before responding. He recommended independently verifying phone numbers and email addresses, and reporting suspected scams to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Federal Trade Commission and local law enforcement agencies.

Winters believes one reason AI-powered scams have become so convincing is the lack of regulation around technology platforms.

“Like the social media platforms that allow ad targeting, as well as the AI generation platforms that can basically make just lots of text that seems plausible,” Winters added.

Researchers said cryptocurrency scams account for more than half of all reported financial losses.