Report by Malwarebytes
2025 Mobile Scam Report
Key Findings
Gen X encountered extortion scams at 35% and fell victim at 15%.
Only 14% of younger generation scam victims report scam to authorities.
The majority of users (66%) state it is hard to tell apart a scam from the real thing.
Nearly half of users (44%) encounter mobile scams daily.
Only 15% of people strongly agree they could detect a scam.
Over half of scam victims (52%) suffer financial loss or fraud.
28% of Gen Z have fallen victim to extortion scams.
Three in four (75%) of users have encountered social engineering attempts like phishing and impersonation scams.
Exposure to mobile scams is highest in the US (51%) and UK (49%), and notably lower in DACH (38%).
Nearly half (46%) of scam victims struggle with mental health effects like anxiety, depression and lost trust.
One in four users (25%) say they have stopped caring, accepting scams as an inevitable cost of being online.
58% of Gen Z have encountered extortion scams, including deepfakes and sextortion.
Two-thirds of people are worried about the future of AI and how realistic scams are going to become.
Three-quarters of scam victims (75%) report serious emotional consequences.
36% of users have fallen victim to a mobile scam.
More than a quarter (27%) of scam victims lose access to critical digital assets like accounts, devices or irreplaceable files.
Only 14% of younger generation scam victims report scam to authorities.
Boomers encountered extortion scams at 23% and fell victim at 7%.
Only 17% of scam victims report scams to authorities.