The threat of identity theft and scams is greater than ever before—and employees need protection that works. There are several reasons for this demand, including soaring fraud losses, the need for family protection, and more.
Identity theft, scams, and financial fraud are common risks for American workers. Imposter schemes, malicious texts, account takeovers, and data breaches can affect employees across nearly every digital channel.
The financial consequences are also escalating. Consumers lost approximately $38 billion to fraud in 2025, with imposter scams accounting for $3.5 billion in reported losses alone.
With these threats leading to rising losses, identity and scam protection may help employees support their financial wellness and respond to the financial and emotional fallout of a fraud incident.
1. Fraud and identity theft losses are soaring
Today’s scammers can target victims in several ways. Criminals may impersonate trusted businesses, government agencies, or financial institutions to persuade victims to send money or disclose sensitive information. Imposter scams represented nearly one in three fraud reports submitted to the FTC in 2025, making them the year’s most frequently reported fraud category. Reported losses to these scams have nearly tripled since 2020. Criminals can also scam victims via QR codes, fake shopping sites, and more.
Identity theft also remains widespread with over 18 million victims in 2025 alone. And identity theft can take multiple forms, including account takeovers, medical identity theft, and professional credential theft.
This kind of fraud may have real-world impacts for both organizations and their employees. Organizations may see productivity losses and strained professional relationships when their employees experience fraud, while those employees may experience significant stress, damage to their finances, and more.
These escalating risks may be contributing to increasing demand for an identity and scam protection benefit that may help employees avoid these threats. These benefits may include features designed to help members detect suspicious activity and scam links, protect personal information, and access dedicated support when fraud occurs.
And the demand for this kind of protection is soaring. In fact, the identity protection market is expected to grow from $16 billion to over $26 billion in just four years, a sign that consumers are actively seeking out this kind of protection.
2. Employees need protection against AI-driven scams
Awareness alone is not always enough to stop modern scams. Creating deceptive schemes is easier than ever with the use of AI, which can be used to write convincing emails and communications, or even replicate the voices and faces of trusted individuals such as family members, friends, or managers.
Scam protection can help address both sides of the threat through features such as:
Proactive scam detection features
Scam education resources
Professional guidance on how to recognize scams and what to do when impacted by a scam
Reimbursement for eligible covered losses
And it’s clear that employees need tools and resources to help them identify these scams, both in their personal and professional life. After all, only 8 percent of institutions expressed high confidence in their employees’ ability to identify AI-generated scams.
3. Scams and identity fraud can harm employees’ financial and emotional wellbeing
The effects of a scam may extend beyond the money stolen. Victims may spend significant time securing their accounts, contacting financial institutions, filing reports, and trying to recover lost funds. In fact, over 500,000 tax-related identity fraud victims are waiting around 20 months for resolution from the IRS.
A 2026 study from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance found that 70% of Americans had a scam experience in 2025.
The study also found that 73 percent of victims experienced a negative effect on their mental health or wellbeing. But victims’ mental health and wellbeing isn’t the only aspect of their lives being impacted. 21 percent of scam victims reported severe financial hardship because of a scam, and the situation was even more dire for households earning less than $80,000 per year with 28 percent reporting severe financial hardship because of a scam.
Identity theft can have similar negative effects on a victim’s wellbeing and finances. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that 74 percent of ITRC victims reported feeling stress because of identity theft, while 35 percent of victims lost at least $10,000 from their identity theft incident.
And for consumers, there’s no doubt—protection from fraud is important to them as 1 in 3 consumers rank fraud protection as their top priority when opening a new account
Although identity and scam protection isn’t guaranteed to prevent scams and identity theft, it can support a broader employee wellness strategy by providing employees with the tools and services they need to avoid fraud and recover from it. This includes proactive monitoring, alerts, education, and professional recovery assistance.
4. Employees want protection for their entire family
Identity theft and scams can affect every generation. Children may be targeted by identity thieves, which can be harder to detect as many parents may not expect their children to be victims, and therefore don’t check for credit accounts in their children’s names. Children may also be impacted by shopping scams and gaming scams as well, with sextortion scams causing significant mental and physical harm.
A significant number of consumers are having discussions with their family members about fraud prevention to keep them safe from fraud, including their spouses, adult children, and parents.
Parents and older relatives are also often targeted by impersonation, investment, government, and tech support scams. And with adults, and especially older adults, having access to significant financial resources, this makes them prime targets for identity theft such as account takeovers.
Family identity and scam protection plans empower employees to extend their service to spouses, children, and other loved ones. This makes the benefit particularly relevant to employees balancing financial responsibilities with the responsibility of caring for their family members.
To learn more about how an identity and scam protection benefit can help protect your employees and improve their wellbeing, visit our Business Content Hub.
