Published Apr 28, 2026, 2:31 PM EDT Sara Heritage is a tech and gaming journalist, who's currently making her way up to Master Ball rank in Pokemon Champions. Bylines in IGN, GAMINGbible, The Gamer and more. You can usually find her tinkering with tech, or restoring old consoles, always with one of her 3 cats nearby. Come and talk with her over on Twitter @SHeritageJourno. Summary Social media caused $2.1B in 2025 scam losses—an eightfold rise since 2020. Top scams: investment "success" groups, fake shopping ads, tailored romance cons. Lock privacy, verify contacts with video, check links, and never pay via wire/gift/crypto. Once upon a time, social media was a place to post vacation photos, ‘poke’ your friends, and share unwise ‘checking in’ status updates. Today, it has become the costliest fraud contact method in existence, according to new data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).…