How Do Consumers’ Fraud Experiences Vary with Their Financial Vulnerability?

A sizeable share of U.S. consumers has been exposed to financial fraud. According to the 2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), in 2023, 21 percent of U.S. consumers experienced financial fraud involving their credit cards, bank accounts, or other financial products. Fraud victims often lose money in a fraud incident and may not fully recover the money later, ultimately sustaining fraud losses. The adverse financial effects of fraud are likely to be most pronounced for financially constrained consumers, as these consumers tend to have little financial cushion to absorb a fraud loss. In this Payments System Research Briefing, we examine how both the share of consumers who experienced financial fraud and the share who ultimately incurred fraud losses varies by consumers’ level of financial vulnerability.