New Scams Barometer: Why 69% of Consumers Still See a Rising Tide of Scams
From fake delivery messages and impersonation calls to fraudulent investment adverts, online scams have become part of everyday digital life for consumers around the world.
As more of our lives move online, scammers are adapting quickly, using new technologies and increasingly sophisticated tactics to exploit trust at scale. What was once often seen as isolated fraud is now a fast-moving global issue crossing platforms, sectors and borders.
Today, Consumers International releases the second edition of its Scams Barometer, offering insight into how the scams landscape is evolving globally and where responses are beginning to shift.
Drawing on insights from 23 participants of the Consumer Coalition to Stop Scams across 17 countries and five regions - Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East - alongside four global private sector companies, the H1 2026 Scams Barometer tracks trends, challenges and responses across the scams ecosystem.
The findings show scams continue to rise globally, with 69% of respondents reporting increased scam activity. Compared to the first edition of the Scams Barometer, 13% reported that scams slightly decreased in their jurisdictions.
While this does not suggest scams are becoming obsolete, it does point to an important trend: the jurisdictions reporting improvement are typically those with stronger regulatory expectations, clearer accountability mechanisms and more coordinated action across sectors. Examples of this are Singapore and Hong Kong.
This edition of the Barometer also shines a light on countries such as Myanmar, South Africa, Sudan, and Yemen, and the often-overlooked realities faced by consumers struggling with online scams in these contexts. In South Africa, victims frequently remain silent due to embarrassment and a lack of clear compensation mechanisms.
Artificial Intelligence has become the defining challenge
Fifty-two percent of the coalition identified artificial intelligence (AI) as the top threat, particularly through deepfakes, voice cloning, impersonation scams and increasingly deceptive advertisements and listings.
The findings reflect a growing consensus across the Coalition: consumers cannot reasonably be expected to identify increasingly sophisticated scams on their own. The systems surrounding consumers - including platforms, payment providers, telecommunications networks and enforcement frameworks - are struggling to keep pace with the speed and scale of AI-enabled fraud.
Progress is emerging where consumers are directly supported
Compared to the first edition of the Barometer, this year’s findings show a noticeable shift away from viewing scams primarily as a consumer awareness issue and toward recognising them as a systemic challenge requiring coordinated action across the digital ecosystem. The strongest progress identified in this edition was in directly empowering and defending consumers, highlighted by 35% of participants.
The Coalition increasingly pointed to the need for a “whole-of-society approach” - bringing together governments, regulators, financial institutions, platforms, telecommunications providers, law enforcement and consumer organisations - rather than relying on fragmented interventions of awareness campaigns alone. This was identified as a priority by 26% of respondents.
Examples emerging across the Coalition show what this shared responsibility can look like in practice:
- Consumer Education and Research Centre, India: The Aware Consumer Village initiative brings scams prevention directly into rural communities through village volunteers, legal support and toll-free helplines, with a focus on empowering women and young people.
- Consumer Reports, United States: The Fairness by Design Tech Sprint convened fintech developers, advocates and experts to prototype scam-resistant financial systems and strengthen recovery pathways for consumers.
- Direct consumer engagement: From virtual reality fraud simulations helping seniors recognise scams through experience to YouTube campaigns built around real-life scam stories, organisations are developing more practical and accessible forms of prevention.
While these demonstrate that progress is possible, the latest Barometer also makes clear that scams remain a rapidly growing threat. Respondents consistently emphasised that meaningful progress will depend on stronger national regulatory intervention, clearer accountability across digital ecosystems, and faster cross-border cooperation to disrupt scams and freeze stolen funds before they disappear across jurisdictions.
Turning insight into action
The H1 2026 Scams Barometer forms part of Consumers International’s growing toolkit to support stronger global action against online scams.
Consumers International has also developed:
- Global Action Agenda to Protect Consumers from Online Scams, which sets out practical policy measures to help governments strengthen national and international responses.
- Stopping Online Scams: Building Consistency and Coordination for Consumers, an assessment examining how 28 jurisdictions are implementing the policy measures outlined in the Global Action Agenda and where key gaps remain.
Together, these tools are designed to help governments, regulators, businesses and consumer advocates benchmark progress, identify weaknesses and strengthen collaboration across borders.
The latest Scams Barometer shows that while the threat is growing and evolving rapidly, progress is possible when governments, industry and consumer advocates work together to build safer digital environments for consumers everywhere.