Sources

Last reviewed: October 18, 2026

What you'll get from this page: Every report behind the numbers and phone lines in this book, with dates and links, so you can check them yourself.

Figures were checked against these sources on October 18, 2026. Where a claim from the original manuscript could not be matched to a public source, it was softened or removed rather than cited.

1. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report (2026), complaint and loss tables. https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf
2. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Cryptocurrency and AI Scams Bilk Americans of Billions" (press release on the 2025 Internet Crime Report). https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/cryptocurrency-and-ai-scams-bilk-americans-of-billions
3. Chainalysis, "2026 Crypto Crime Report: Scams" (January 13, 2026). https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-scams-2026/
4. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (U.S. Treasury), "FinCEN Identifies Nearly $13 Billion Linked to Suspected Digital Asset Scams Operated by Overseas Scam Centers" (September 3, 2026). https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-identifies-nearly-13-billion-linked-suspected-digital-asset-scams
5. Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Alert: "How are scammers trying to reach you?" (May 21, 2026). https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2026/05/how-are-scammers-trying-reach-you
6. Federal Trade Commission, Data Spotlight: "Reported losses to scams on social media eight times higher than in 2020" (April 2026). https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2026/04/reported-losses-scams-social-media-eight-times-higher-2020
7. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Public Service Announcement I-041224-PSA, "Smishing Scam Regarding Debt for Road Toll Services" (April 12, 2024). https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA240412
8. CrowdStrike, "2025 Global Threat Report" press release (February 27, 2025). https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/press-releases/crowdstrike-releases-2025-global-threat-report/
9. Mandiant (Google Cloud), "M-Trends 2026" (March 23, 2026). https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/m-trends-2026/
10. BioCatch, "Global banking scams increase by 35%" (2026 Global Scams report, September 30, 2026). https://www.biocatch.com/press-release/global-banking-scams-increase-by-35
11. Google, "How we kept the Google Play & Android app ecosystems safe in 2024" (January 29, 2025). https://blog.google/security/how-we-kept-google-play-android-app-ecosystem-safe-2024/
12. Google Online Security Blog, "PHA Family Highlights: Bread (and Friends)" (January 9, 2020). https://security.googleblog.com/2020/01/pha-family-highlights-bread-and-friends.html
13. Kaspersky Securelist, "The mobile threat landscape in 2024". https://securelist.com/mobile-threat-report-2024/115494/
14. Kaspersky Securelist, "SparkCat crypto stealer in Google Play and App Store" (February 5, 2025). https://securelist.com/sparkcat-stealer-in-app-store-and-google-play/115385/
15. AARP, Fraud Watch Network Helpline. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/helpline/
16. U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, National Elder Fraud Hotline. https://www.ovc.ojp.gov/program/elder-fraud-abuse/national-elder-fraud-hotline