The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Investor Advocate published its annual report to Congress on its activities for fiscal year 2024.
Included in the report were the office’s findings from a program of quarterly surveys of investors launched in FY24. The Thoughtful Households Relating Investing Experiences panel is a nationally representative survey panel intended to provide timely data on investment-related topics and support investor testing projects to help inform policymaking or long-run research priorities.
The report also highlighted the agency’s continued focus on investment fraud. Reported fraud incidents continued to grow in 2024, as reported by numerous investors, regulators and law enforcement agencies. In addition, the report detailed the SEC’s creation of the Interagency Securities Council, a joint task force where federal, state and local regulatory and law enforcement professionals meet to discuss the latest in financial fraud, trends and mitigation strategies, and receive briefings on emerging and complex topics to better protect investors. The OIA’s Office of the Ombuds included information that describes a prevalent pattern of investment fraud, as reported by the victims who contact the ombuds for assistance.
The report cited Federal Trade Commission reported an increase in the amount that consumers reported losing to fraud — $10 billion in overall losses in 2023. The FTC also reported an increase in the amount that consumers lost to investment scams, with a 21% increase from 2022 to 2023, and a reported loss of $4.6 billion in 2023. The second-highest reported loss amount came from imposter scams, with losses of nearly $2.7 billion reported. Moreover, in its 2024 Report on Protecting Older Consumers, the FTC said that underreporting results in an incomplete picture of the scale of the problem. The FTC estimates that overall losses due to fraud in 2023, adjusted for underreporting, was “$158.3 billion or $23.7 billion for consumers of all ages and $61.5 billion or $7.1 billion for older adults.” The FTC explained that those estimates are based on two different assumptions about the degree of underreporting for high-dollar losses.
“This year’s report brings into focus our efforts to understand investors’ preferences related to their investments through data and research, and outline some of the investment fraud trends that are increasingly common,” said Cristina Martin Firvida, director of the Office of the Investor Advocate. “I am particularly supportive of the Commission’s efforts to combat retail investor fraud and the formation of the Interagency Securities Council to coordinate efforts across the whole of government. The ongoing fraud epidemic in America continues to be of paramount concern, and our advocacy reflects those interests.”
