Americans told the FBI they lost close to $18 billion to online fraud last year. That works out to more than $2 million every hour. A new report from Democrats on a congressional committee says only a small slice of that money ever makes it back to victims.

The report was released Tuesday by Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, the top Democrats on Congress's Joint Economic Committee. It concludes that the federal response to the boom in cyberscams is fragmented and that teamwork with private companies is still mostly voluntary.

Many of the schemes are run out of huge compounds overseas. Hassan said the criminal groups behind them use American technology including artificial intelligence to target people here with devastating results. She said Congress, the administration and private industry all need to step up.

Where the money went

One of the report's sharpest findings is that the government has no single count of how much money has been seized from scam operations or how much has been returned. Each agency keeps its own tally.

The FBI told the committee it returned $336 million to scam victims in 2025. The Federal Trade Commission said it sent $1.83 billion back to fraud victims that fiscal year but could not say how much came from overseas compounds. The Secret Service returned more than $770 million over two fiscal years from a wide range of fraud cases. Added together, those sums are still a fraction of what people lost. Many victims never report the crime at all.

Gaps overseas and at home

The report also raised concerns about cuts at the State Department. At least one program in Bangladesh that trained local police to investigate cyberfraud was eliminated even as that country emerges as a new hub for scam operations. The department said it has 60 people in the United States and Asia who spend much of their time on the problem and that it has the tools it needs.

Lawmakers urged Congress to pass pending bills that would require a single national strategy against scams and create one central place for victims to report losses and get help. The White House has also called for better coordination across agencies.

Pressure on tech and banks

Justice Department officials told the committee that private companies should do more to stop scams before they happen. Unlike the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, the United States does not hold tech, phone or financial companies liable when they fail to protect customers from fraud.

For now the best defense is still caution. Be wary of unexpected texts, calls or online messages that push you to send money, buy gift cards or move funds into crypto. If something feels off, stop and verify with someone you trust before you pay.