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Data from The GDELT Project · Reviewed and interpreted by RSRC

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Research & trends

This Social Network Was the Primary Hunting Ground for Scammers in 2025

www.pcmag.comEnglishObserved 2026-04-28
Included for relevance; source claims are not independently verified. This record is based on saved titles and descriptions unless a separate deeper-reading assessment is explicitly shown. Observation dates are not incident dates. An arrest or charge is not a conviction.

How to read this record

The FTC’s 2025 social-media fraud total of USD2.1 billion combines investment, shopping and romance fraud. It is not a romance-only loss estimate.

Places in the available evidence

No geographic role could be established from the available text.

Unlisted locations remain unknown. Nationality, language and web address alone do not establish where a scam happened.

Themes reported in the text

These labels describe the available reporting. “Not reported” does not mean a harm did not happen. A theme's stage applies to that statement, not every claim in the article.

Relationship-based deception

unspecifiedreported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
alleged offender
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established

Financial and property harm

cashreported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
targeted person
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established

Technical facilitation

platform communicationreported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
alleged offender
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established
All 24 assessed themes
ThemeAssessment
Blame, stigma and responsibility framingnot reported in available text
Homicide and lethal violencenot reported in available text
Disruption of daily lifenot reported in available text
Financial and property harmreported in available text
Suicide and self-harmnot reported in available text
Family and social harmnot reported in available text
Protection or recovery of assetsnot reported in available text
Policy and regulatory responsenot reported in available text
Justice proceedings and outcomesnot reported in available text
Coercion and exploitationnot reported in available text
Psychological distressnot reported in available text
Blackmail and extortionnot reported in available text
Help, reporting and preventionnot reported in available text
Physical or sexual harmnot reported in available text
Investment pretextnot reported in available text
Technical facilitationreported in available text
Investigation and operational responsenot reported in available text
Organization and division of labornot reported in available text
Relationship-based deceptionreported in available text
Involvement in other offendingnot reported in available text
Continued or renewed targetingnot reported in available text
Prior circumstances and claimed vulnerabilitynot reported in available text
Institutional barriers or harmful responsenot reported in available text
Moving money for a schemenot reported in available text

Connected reporting

Only direct reviewed connections are shown. Shared wording is weaker evidence than a supported case connection. A connection through a third article does not establish that two reports concern the same case.

No direct connection is recorded. This does not establish that the story is unique.

Research provenance

1 saved revision. Corrections preserve earlier versions.

A page can change after it first appears. Observation dates record when its URL was seen; they do not prove that the wording assessed here was present on every date.

Record: 7109e32709023d19aa7d65edd1b0efc8dcd9eed36b03e25401c45c208d0a444e
Decision: cc4da5e2cc3663c1bb34f4fbecef129b0dc87a80adc20245a0f07da3711cc1df
Current revision: 319427194de5eca8826754a19bd1dba5d1226a326d8907e8cc2e3e642b812d7b

The local research archive retains source hashes, quoted evidence and review records. This collection does not redistribute full publisher articles.