- According to a recent survey, more than half of U.S. consumers say they have been targeted by a scam in the past year, while 8 in 10 say they are more concerned about scams than they were a year ago.
- Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the scam involved someone impersonating a company or brand they trusted, while more than 30% of victims said they will stop buying from a brand online.
BrandShield, a global leader in digital risk protection, today announced findings from its 2026 Consumer Fraud & Trust Report, an independent survey of 1,029 U.S. adults examining how scams, brand impersonation, counterfeit listings, and AI-generated fraud are reshaping how consumers shop online.
“AI has made it cheap and fast to build convincing fakes, whether that's a phishing email, a customer support chat, a website, or an entire storefront, and the instincts people used to rely on to catch it don't hold up anymore,” said Yoav Keren, CEO of BrandShield. “That puts real exposure on the brands at a time when customer trust and brand reputation are increasingly under attack.”
The AI Trust Crisis
Nearly 9 in 10 consumers (87.1%) say they're concerned that AI is making scams harder to detect, including 46.8% who are very concerned. More than half (52.3%) say they're much more worried about online threats than they were a year ago, and another 29.8% are slightly more concerned, bringing the total to 82.1%.
That concern is warranted. Over half of respondents (52.4%) say they were the target of a scam in the past 12 months, with 27.5% saying they lost money outright, and 4 in 10 (43.3%) claiming losses of $500 or more. Beyond the direct financial hit, 23% had personal information stolen, 20% paid for an item that never arrived and 17.4% received a counterfeit.
Brands Pay for Scams They Didn't Create
Among consumers who encountered suspicious activity or a scam, 63.6% say it involved someone impersonating a real company, bank, retailer, or other organization they trusted. The most commonly impersonated entities were companies or brands (21.7%), retailers (16.2%), and banks (14.5%).
For the brands and organizations being impersonated, the fallout can be significant: 42.4% of consumers say they'll now only buy from brand-affiliated websites, 39.2% will no longer share personal information with that brand online, 31.6% will stop clicking its ads, and 30.2% say they'll stop buying from it online altogether. Yet just 4.2% of consumers hold the impersonated brand responsible for the scam.
That loss of consumer trust extends beyond impersonated brands to the marketplaces where many consumers encounter scams and counterfeit goods.
Online Marketplaces Have a Trust Problem
Among consumers who have used a marketplace platform, more than a third (34.5%) say they've experienced fraud, a scam, or a counterfeit item. Among the respondents surveyed, one in three (34.7%) ranked TikTok Shop as the platform where the fraud occurred, followed by eBay (28.4%), Craigslist (19.9%), Etsy (19.2%), Poshmark (17.0%), Mercari (12.9%) and Depop (11.1%).
Of the nearly 8 in 10 (79.5%) marketplace shoppers who say a scam or attack changed how they shop: 28.6% now buy only from trusted sellers or official brand sites, 27.6% verify sellers before buying, and 10.6% stopped using the platform entirely. Just 20.4% of consumers say their behavior has not changed.
Consumers Don't Let Platforms Off the Hook
When asked who they'd hold most responsible for a scam on social media or a marketplace, consumers put the platform (26.2%) almost on par with the scammer (26.5%), well ahead of themselves (16.8%), the marketplace seller (10.3%), or the impersonated brand (4.2%).
"AI has made scams nearly impossible to spot, and our data shows consumers are willing to walk away from brands being impersonated even when they know it's not their fault," continued Keren. "Protecting customers from fraud before it reaches them should be a core part of every brand's strategy to defend its reputation and maintain trust for long-term revenue growth."
For more information on BrandShield’s Consumer Fraud & Trust Report, please visit: www.brandshield.com
About BrandShield
BrandShield provides an AI-powered digital risk protection solution. Our online brand protection and external cybersecurity technology proactively uncovers and eliminates cyber risks such as phishing attacks, social media scams, impersonation, paid ad scams, counterfeiting, and other digital risks that threaten the company's users, customers, business and brand. With proprietary AI technology, BrandShield detects critical risks first and eliminates them instantly. To learn more about BrandShield, please visit the company website at www.brandshield.com.
