Report by Malwarebytes

Scammers are getting smarter about where they target you

11 FINDINGSPublished Sep 2, 2026
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Key Findings

Half of all IRS scams come by phone call.

IRS ScamsPhone FraudScamsConsumer

MrBeast appears in roughly 30% of impersonation scams tracked by Malwarebytes.

ImpersonationSocial EngineeringScamsConsumer

Roblox experienced a 15% spike in scam activity from mid-June to mid-July.

GamingScam ActivityRobloxScamsConsumer

Steam experienced a 19% spike in scam activity from mid-June to mid-July.

GamingScam ActivitySteamScamsConsumer

By Friday, people receive roughly 50% more fraudulent text messages than at the start of the week.

SMS FraudScamsConsumer

Seventy percent of young adults ages 18 to 22 have experienced an AI-related scam in the past year.

AI ScamsGen ZConsumerScams

Nine in ten toll scams arrive by email or text.

Toll FraudEmailTextScamsConsumer

Roughly six in ten romance scams play out on social media.

Romance ScamsSocial MediaScamsConsumer

Scam text volume peaks at 12 p.m. ET, approximately 874% higher than at 1 a.m. ET.

SMS FraudScamsConsumer

Google's name appears in scam content at least twice as often as Amazon's name.

Brand ImpersonationPhishingGoogleAmazonConsumer

Half of the general population have experienced an AI-related scam in the past year.

AI ScamsConsumerScams