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This Is the Most Common Text Scam in 47 States: Don’t Fall for It
By Gabriel O. Rodriguez Cruz MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Investment scams don’t always start with an obvious pitch to buy the next hot stock or crypto. They are often sneakier.
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Depending on where you live in the U.S., the scam texts flooding your phone may come with an assortment of offers. But in nearly every state, fraudsters are using the same trap to steal your money: fake investment opportunities.
A recent analysis from cybersecurity company McAfee found that investment and cryptocurrency scams are the most common type of fraudulent text message in 47 states. (Michigan, Maine and North Dakota were the only exceptions.)
Investment scams don’t always start with an obvious pitch to buy the next hot stock or crypto. They are often sneakier, appearing like a supposed expert inviting you to join a financial advice group or a stranger who claims to have reached the wrong number. But over time, the conversation inevitably turns toward an investment opportunity or a request for money.
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Abhishek Karnik, head of threat research at McAfee, says this is the typical playbook for scammers.
“It usually starts with a simple text message,” he says. “Very soon, you notice that the conversation has moved to WhatsApp or Telegram or some other platform which they know cannot be monitored as well.”
That’s when the fraudster brings up a once-in-a-lifetime deal they claim that, if missed, “could be the biggest mistake that you ever make.”
Why investment scams dominate across state lines
Part of the reason why investment scams have become so widespread is that they combine convincing social engineering with easy-to-exploit payment methods.
“Any time you use crypto, any time you use a gift card [for] payment … or [do] some sort of a debit-related transaction, the chances of you recovering that money is almost nil,” Karnik says. “With crypto … you can’t even trace which country it went to.”
Because of this, the payoff for scammers can be enormous. According to the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, Americans reported losing more than $7.9 billion to investment scams in 2025 — more than any other fraud category. The median loss exceeded $10,000.
The Better Business Bureau also found investment fraud to be particularly damaging. Investment and cryptocurrency scams were the riskiest scam type reported to the organization in 2025, with more than 77% of people targeted claiming a financial loss.
Artificial intelligence is only making this type of scam more dangerous. Fraudulent messages can now be generated quickly in multiple languages and tailored to sound extremely convincing, which makes it easier for fraudsters to run the same basic scheme on consumers across the country instead of crafting campaigns one victim at a time.
Some states still see much more scam activity than others
Investment scams may dominate almost everywhere, but all Americans aren’t encountering fraudulent messages at the same rate. McAfee found that Alabama had the highest number of scam texts per device, followed by Georgia and Mississippi.
Other fraud data shows some overlap. Through the first half of 2026, the FTC had Nevada tied for first and Georgia ranked fourth nationwide for fraud reports per capita, with 604 and 547 reports per 100,000 residents, respectively.
The datasets measure different things: McAfee tracks fraudulent texts detected on devices, while the FTC figures cover consumer fraud reports in general. But at least some states where Americans are receiving large volumes of suspicious texts are also reporting high levels of fraud overall.
Why people in one state get hit harder than those in another is less straightforward.
Karnik says scammers may target certain demographics or regions, but differences “really depends on what data was made available to them.” A stolen database could simply contain contact information for large numbers of people from a particular state, allowing criminals to focus their campaigns accordingly.
“Scammers — especially in telecom — like to call you with a number from the same region that you’re at,” says Ron Kerbs, founder and CEO of AI voice-fraud detection company Kidas.
He adds that fraudsters capitalize on events happening in a specific area, like local elections or sporting events.
How to protect yourself from financial scam texts
As investment scams become more pervasive, it’s key to focus less on whether a message looks legitimate and more on whether you can confirm who is behind it.
Kerbs says that if someone contacts you claiming to represent a bank, investment firm or other financial institution, you should end the conversation and verify their identity though another channel, like a phone number printed on a bank card or statement.
Offers that promise unusually high or guaranteed returns should also be treated as a major red flag — legitimate investments always involve risk. Avoid clicking any links or using contact information provided in an unexpected text message.
And perhaps most importantly, an investment opportunity shouldn’t appear more trustworthy simply because the person pitching it has spent days or weeks building a relationship with you first.
Karnik says to keep a close eye on the warning signs, since they tend to appear one after the other: an out-of-the-blue text, a back and forth that moves to a private messaging app and the sudden pressure to invest quickly.
“Eventually, it all boils down to making a payment or losing money,” he says.
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Gabriel Rodríguez is an editor at Money who specializes in crypto and tech and has over 5 years of experience in the industry. An enthusiastic techie from a young age, Gabriel aims to guide consumers in the right direction when it comes to software and hardware solutions, helping them sort through the swaths of inefficient and gimmicky applications out there. The main tech topics he oversees at Money are antivirus software, identity theft protection services and virtual private networks (VPNs). This passion for emerging technologies led to a growing interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, which he now has intimate knowledge of having written about the topic for the past three years. Gabriel has consulted with leading experts in blockchain, the underlying technology behind crypto, regarding its potential for innovation in various fields, including supply chains, financial services and governance and is responsible for keeping Money’s crypto content timely and up-to-date. Gabriel received his BA in Comparative Literature, his MA in Translation from German to Spanish from the University of Puerto Rico and speaks four languages fluently. His background in these fields has provided him the tools to quickly and efficiently research a wide variety of topics, which has proved essential for reviewing different services and products.\