Online Impersonation Statistics 2026

The headline numbers

Jump to the transparency scorecard →

What imposter scams cost

The following figures come from FTC annual reports and enforcement updates.

• Total fraud losses reported to the FTC hit $16 billion in 2025, the highest ever recorded, up about 25% from 2024. FTC, June 2026
• Business impersonators took nearly $1 billion in 2025, with bank impersonators the costliest. Government impersonators took about $920 million. Both up from 2024 ($866 million and $789 million). FTC, June 2026
• In 2024, total reported fraud was $12.5 billion, with imposter scams at $2.95 billion. FTC, March 2025
• Among victims aged 60 and over, losses of $100,000 or more accounted for $1.6 billion, 68% of that group's $2.4 billion total in 2024. FTC report to Congress on protecting older consumers, December 2025
• Since the FTC's Impersonation Rule took effect in April 2024, the agency has brought a dozen enforcement actions and recovered over $70 million. Set against $3.5 billion in annual imposter losses. FTC, June 2026

The FBI's numbers

• The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 1,008,597 complaints in 2025, the first year over one million, with $20.877 billion in losses, up 26% from 2024. Average loss: $20,699. FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
• Tech support and government impersonation fraud together generated over 80,000 complaints and more than $2.9 billion in losses in 2025. FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
• Americans over 60 reported $7.7 billion in losses in 2025. FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
• The FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion reports in 2025 and referred over 5,700 submissions involving minors to NCMEC. FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
• The FBI documents criminals using AI for fake social profiles, voice clones, fake ID documents, and believable videos of public figures and loved ones. FBI press release, April 2026

Government impersonation complaints, year by year

Complaints nearly tripled in three years, with the sharpest jump in 2025.

Which platforms scams start on

• In 2025, people reported losing more money to scams that started on Facebook than on any other social media platform. WhatsApp was second and Instagram third. Losses starting on Facebook alone exceeded losses to text and email scams combined. FTC Data Spotlight, April 2026
• Social media was the most costly scam contact method for every age group under 80. FTC Data Spotlight, April 2026
• Nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it started on social media. FTC Data Spotlight, April 2026
• Facebook actioned roughly 3.5 billion fake accounts across 2025 (1 billion in Q1, 687 million in Q2, 692 million in Q3, 1.1 billion in Q4), and Meta estimates fake accounts still represented 3 to 5% of active users through the year. Meta Transparency Center, Q3 2025 integrity report
• In the first half of 2025 alone, Meta removed about 10 million profiles impersonating large content producers. Meta for Creators blog, July 2025

If you're dealing with a fake account right now, see our guide for Facebook and our guide for Instagram.

What happens to impersonation reports

Most social media companies publish the number of fake accounts they remove. Very few publish what happens after a victim reports an account impersonating them.

Snapchat is currently the notable exception. Its Transparency Reports publish impersonation reports submitted by users, enforcement actions taken, unique accounts actioned, proactive detections, appeal outcomes, and median response times. This makes Snapchat the most transparent major social platform regarding impersonation-report handling.

During 2025, Snapchat received 1,474,388 impersonation reports and recorded 9,712 enforcement actions relating to impersonation reports.

Snap distinguishes between reports, enforcement actions and unique accounts. Multiple reports may concern the same account, and one report does not necessarily result in an enforcement action. The published figures should not be interpreted as acceptance or rejection rates.

Sources: Snap Transparency Report (January–June 2025) · Snap Transparency Report (July–December 2025)

Appeals against impersonation enforcement

Across 2025 Snapchat processed 1,794 impersonation appeals. Only 68 resulted in reinstatement, while 1,726 enforcement decisions were upheld.

Sources: Snap Transparency Report (January–June 2025) · Snap Transparency Report (July–December 2025)

Impersonation enforcement by platform

Platforms use different definitions and reporting methods for fake accounts, impersonation and identity misuse. A fake-account total may include spam, automation or fabricated identities that do not impersonate a real person. The figures below are included only when a platform publishes an impersonation-specific number or a clearly identified authenticity category that includes impersonation.

Pinterest

Pinterest deactivated 8,789 impersonation accounts in 2025

Pinterest began publishing impersonation as a separate Community Guidelines enforcement category in 2025. It reported the following account deactivations:

Pinterest states that 100% of its impersonation deactivations were reviewed manually throughout 2025. The company says enforcement is normally initiated after receiving a report directly from the person being impersonated or from someone acting on that person's behalf.

Pinterest also deactivated 57 Pins for impersonation during 2025: 9 in Q1, 7 in Q2, 6 in Q3 and 35 in Q4. It reported no board deactivations under the impersonation policy.

Pinterest reports deactivated accounts and content, not the total number of impersonation reports it received. Its published figures therefore cannot be used to calculate the proportion of victim reports accepted or rejected.

Sources: Pinterest Transparency Report, July–December 2025 · Pinterest Transparency Report, January–June 2025

LinkedIn

LinkedIn detects nearly all fake accounts proactively

LinkedIn publishes detailed fake-account enforcement data, although it does not separate accounts impersonating real people from other fake or abusive accounts.

During July–December 2025, LinkedIn reported that 99.7% of the fake accounts it stopped were detected before a member reported them. It also said 97.8% were stopped by automated defenses, with the remaining 2.2% stopped through manual investigations and restrictions.

LinkedIn's figures cover fake accounts generally. They should not be presented as impersonation-account totals, and LinkedIn does not publish a dedicated table showing how many victim impersonation reports were accepted, rejected or appealed.

Source: LinkedIn Community Report

X

X has published limited regional impersonation-report data

X does not currently publish a recent worldwide dataset dedicated to impersonation reports. Historical country reports issued when the service was still named Twitter provide limited regional data.

This is historical regional data from Türkiye and must not be presented as a global X statistic. The action rate describes the share of requests on which the platform reported taking action under that reporting system. Historical data.

X's current Transparency Center covers rules enforcement, platform manipulation, legal requests and Digital Services Act reporting, but it does not provide an equivalent recent global breakdown of victim impersonation reports and outcomes.

Sources: X/Twitter Türkiye Transparency Report, January–June 2023 · X Transparency Center: Rules Enforcement · X impersonation policy

Discord

Discord previously published impersonation-specific enforcement totals

Discord's older transparency reports included an "Identity and Authenticity" category covering malicious impersonation of individuals and organizations. More recent Discord policies still prohibit fake profiles and impersonation, but recent public reporting does not provide the same easily comparable impersonation-only series.

These are historical figures and should not be used to describe Discord's current level of impersonation activity. Changes in reporting categories and enforcement methods prevent a meaningful year-to-year comparison. Historical data.

Sources: Discord Transparency Report, July–December 2021 · Discord Transparency Report, April–June 2022 · Discord Identity and Authenticity Policy

Twitch

Twitch combines impersonation with other enforcement categories

Twitch publishes safety and copyright transparency reports and confirms that it takes action against impersonation. Its 2025 reporting does not provide a standalone impersonation total.

Twitch reported 855 enforcements in 2025 across the combined areas of suspension evasion, impersonation and spam. Because these violations are grouped together, the number cannot be used as a count of impersonation actions.

Combined category. This figure includes suspension evasion, impersonation and spam and must not be described as an impersonation-only total.

Twitch's public username rules separately prohibit impersonation, but no report-level impersonation outcome dataset is published.

Sources: Twitch 2025 Copyright Transparency Report · Twitch username policy

Platform transparency comparison

Of the major platforms, only Snapchat meaningfully discloses what happens after a victim reports an impersonator.

"No" means that no relevant public aggregate dataset was identified in the platform's official transparency publications reviewed for this page. It does not mean the platform performs no enforcement.

Fake-account totals are not directly comparable with impersonation totals. Platforms may include spam accounts, bots, fabricated personas, ban evasion and coordinated networks within broader authenticity or platform-manipulation categories.

Platforms use different terminology and measure different things. See methodology and definitions for what each term means.

What each major platform publishes

Facebook

Meta publishes quarterly Facebook fake-account enforcement totals and estimates of fake-account prevalence. It also publishes selected figures on accounts impersonating large creators. It does not publish a complete report funnel showing the number of individual impersonation reports submitted, actioned, rejected and appealed.

Sources: Meta: Facebook fake accounts enforcement · Meta newsroom: Rewarding Original Creators on Facebook · Meta authentic identity representation policy

Instagram

Instagram applies Meta's policies on authentic identity, impersonation, scams and account integrity. Meta has published selected combined or creator-focused impersonation figures, but it does not publish a complete Instagram-only dataset showing the number and outcomes of victim impersonation reports.

Sources: Meta authentic identity representation policy · Instagram: reporting impersonation

WhatsApp

WhatsApp publishes official guidance for reporting contacts who pretend to be another person and for identifying impersonation scams. It does not publish an aggregate total showing how many impersonation contacts are reported, banned or appealed.

Do not describe WhatsApp as having "fake accounts" in the same sense as public-profile networks. WhatsApp identities are primarily tied to phone numbers and messaging contacts.

Sources: What to do if someone is pretending to be you on WhatsApp · About suspicious messages and scams · How to block and report someone

Threads

Threads is covered by Meta's broader account-integrity and authentic-identity policies, but Meta does not publish a separate Threads impersonation-enforcement dataset.

Sources: Meta authentic identity representation policy · Threads: reporting impersonation

Snapchat

Snapchat publishes user impersonation reports, enforcement actions, unique accounts actioned, proactive enforcement, median response time and appeal outcomes. See the detailed Snapchat section above.

Sources: Snap Transparency Report, January–June 2025 · Snap Transparency Report, July–December 2025

Pinterest

Pinterest publishes quarterly account and content deactivations under an impersonation-specific policy. It also states whether enforcement was manual, automated or hybrid. The full 2025 quarterly table appears in the enforcement section above.

Sources: Pinterest Transparency Report, January–June 2025 · Pinterest Transparency Report, July–December 2025

LinkedIn

LinkedIn publishes fake-account detection and removal data, including proactive and automated detection rates, but it does not isolate accounts impersonating real individuals or disclose a victim-report outcome funnel.

Source: LinkedIn Community Report

TikTok

TikTok prohibits impersonation and provides a dedicated process for reporting an impersonation account. It publishes Community Guidelines, election-integrity and regulatory transparency reports, but no current worldwide dataset shows the total number of impersonation reports, resulting account removals and appeals.

Do not add a generic TikTok account-removal total unless its reporting category explicitly identifies impersonation.

Sources: Report an impersonation account · TikTok Transparency Center · TikTok Community Guidelines: Integrity and Authenticity

X

X prohibits deceptive identities and impersonation. Its current global transparency pages do not provide a recent dedicated impersonation-report outcome dataset. Historical regional reports, including the Türkiye figures shown above, provide limited snapshots.

Sources: X impersonation and deceptive identities policy · X Transparency Center: Rules Enforcement

Telegram

Telegram publishes official transparency disclosures through its @transparency account and associated transparency page. Those disclosures primarily concern government and legal requests for user information. Telegram does not publish an aggregate global dataset for impersonation reports, account removals, report outcomes, response times or impersonation appeals.

Telegram's inclusion here documents the scope of its public reporting. It should not be presented as an impersonation-statistics source.

YouTube

YouTube prohibits channels and content that impersonate another person or channel. It also provides a reporting route for AI-generated content that mimics a person's likeness or voice. Google's YouTube enforcement report publishes broader Community Guidelines data but does not provide a dedicated impersonation total.

Sources: YouTube impersonation policy · YouTube Community Guidelines enforcement report

Reddit

Reddit publishes extensive moderation, user-report and account-sanction data. Its transparency reports do not break out impersonation as a standalone global category. Reddit notes that some reports incorrectly submitted as trademark claims may instead involve impersonation, privacy or harassment and may be reviewed under other rules.

Sources: Reddit Transparency Report, January–June 2025 · Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025 · Reddit rules

Discord

Discord prohibits fake profiles and deceptive impersonation of people, groups and organizations. It published impersonation-specific enforcement totals in earlier reports, but its latest public material does not provide a continuous, directly comparable impersonation series.

Sources: Discord Identity and Authenticity Policy · Discord Safety

Twitch

Twitch prohibits impersonation and publishes transparency reports, but its current published enforcement figure combines impersonation with suspension evasion and spam. It therefore cannot be used as an impersonation-only total.

Sources: Twitch 2025 Copyright Transparency Report · Twitch username policy

Signal

Signal is a private messaging service rather than a public follower-based social network. It does not operate a public profile directory comparable to Instagram, X or TikTok and does not publish social-account impersonation enforcement totals. This does not mean impersonation scams cannot occur through Signal — only that the service does not publish a public social-profile impersonation dataset.

Sources: Signal: Phone number privacy and usernames · Signal: Transparency reports

The numbers most platforms still do not publish

Public reporting has improved, but it remains inconsistent.

Snapchat publishes the most detailed current dataset on impersonation reports, including report volumes, enforcement actions, affected accounts, response times and appeal outcomes.

Pinterest publishes quarterly impersonation account deactivations and explains that every decision is manually reviewed. It does not publish the total number of impersonation reports received or the number rejected.

X has published limited historical regional action rates, while Discord previously published impersonation-account and server removals.

Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Telegram, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch and other major platforms publish policies or broader enforcement information, but not a complete, current and globally comparable dataset showing:

• how many impersonation reports victims submit;
• how many reports are found to violate policy;
• how many are rejected;
• how many reported accounts are removed;
• how long decisions take;
• how often victims appeal a rejection;
• and how often those appeals succeed.

The remaining gap is therefore not a complete absence of data. It is the absence of a common reporting standard. Platforms measure different things, use different categories and disclose different stages of the enforcement process, making direct comparisons difficult.

That gap is what this site documents: what the available figures show, what they leave unanswered, and what victims can do when a report goes nowhere — see our Instagram guide and Facebook guide.

Methodology and definitions

This page uses original government publications and official platform transparency reports wherever possible. Platform statistics are reproduced using the terminology of the source and are not combined unless the underlying measures are compatible.

Impersonation account

An account that deceptively presents itself as a real person, organization or other identifiable entity.

Fake account

A broader category that may include spam accounts, bots, fabricated identities, duplicate accounts, ban evasion and impersonation. A fake account does not necessarily impersonate a real person.

User report

A complaint submitted by a user. Multiple reports may concern the same account, and a report is not proof of a policy violation.

Enforcement action

An action taken by a platform, which may include a warning, content removal, account restriction, suspension or permanent removal.

Unique account actioned

The number of separate accounts affected by enforcement. This may differ from the number of actions because one account can receive more than one action.

Proactive detection

A violation identified by a platform before a user submits a report.

Appeal

A request to reconsider a platform enforcement decision. Some platforms publish appeals filed by penalized accounts but do not publish appeals filed by victims whose reports were rejected.

Combined category

A published statistic that includes impersonation together with other conduct such as spam, coordinated inauthentic behavior or ban evasion. Combined figures must not be described as impersonation-only totals.

The absence of published data does not establish that a platform performs no enforcement. It means that the reviewed public reports do not provide a relevant aggregate figure.

Sources

1. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Annual Report
2. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2024 Annual Report
3. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2023 Annual Report
4. FBI press release: Cryptocurrency and AI Scams Bilk Americans of Billions, April 2026
5. FTC press release: FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025, June 2026
6. FTC Data Spotlight: Reported Losses to Scams on Social Media Eight Times Higher than 2020, April 2026
7. FTC press release: New FTC Data Show Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud, $12.5 Billion in 2024, March 2025
8. FTC Annual Report to Congress on the Agency's Actions to Protect Older Adults, December 2025
9. Meta newsroom: Rewarding Original Creators on Facebook, March 2026
10. Meta for Creators blog: Combating Unoriginal Content, July 2025
11. Meta Transparency Center, Q3 2025 Integrity Report
12. Meta: Facebook fake accounts community standards enforcement
13. Meta authentic identity representation policy
14. Snap Transparency Report, January–June 2025
15. Snap Transparency Report, July–December 2025
16. Pinterest Transparency Report, January–June 2025
17. Pinterest Transparency Report, July–December 2025
18. LinkedIn Community Report
19. X/Twitter Türkiye Transparency Report, January–June 2023
20. X Transparency Center: Rules Enforcement
21. X impersonation and deceptive identities policy
22. Discord Transparency Report, July–December 2021
23. Discord Transparency Report, April–June 2022
24. Discord Identity and Authenticity Policy
25. Twitch 2025 Copyright Transparency Report
26. TikTok Transparency Center
27. TikTok: Report an Impersonation Account
28. YouTube Impersonation Policy
29. YouTube Community Guidelines Enforcement Report
30. Reddit Transparency Report, January–June 2025
31. Reddit Transparency Report, July–December 2025
32. WhatsApp: What to Do if Someone Is Pretending to Be You
33. WhatsApp: Suspicious Messages and Scams
34. Telegram Official Transparency Channel
35. Telegram Transparency
36. Signal Phone Number Privacy and Usernames
37. Signal: No data to turn over (transparency canary)
38. Instagram Help: Report Something
39. Threads Help: Report Something
40. WhatsApp: Block and Report Contacts
41. Discord Safety Center
42. Twitch: Username Policies
43. TikTok Community Guidelines: Integrity and Authenticity
44. Reddit Rules

Editorial policy

• We use primary sources whenever possible, including government publications, platform transparency reports, regulatory filings, and official announcements.
• Every statistic links to its original source.
• We review this page regularly and update it as new official data becomes available.
• When a source revises previously published figures or methodologies, we update this page and preserve historical context where appropriate.
• We do not estimate, extrapolate, or publish unofficial statistics.
• While we make every reasonable effort to ensure accuracy, official data may be corrected, revised, or withdrawn after publication. Readers should consult the original source linked with each statistic for the most up-to-date information.
• If you believe a statistic is inaccurate, outdated, or missing an important source, please contact us so our editorial team can review it.