Commentary: Cybercrime imposes costs on the economy, including $131 billion on small businesses alone. These costs are ultimately transferred to consumers.
A few weeks ago, I received a text that many Americans have received. It looked like a final traffic notice that threatened license suspension, vehicle registration suspension, collections and court expenses unless I scanned a QR code to pay.
A closer look revealed the problem. The notice claimed to come from the Municipal Court of Minnehaha County, North Dakota. But Minnehaha is in South Dakota. It also mentioned toll evasion in North Dakota, which has no toll highways. The notice was clearly a scam.
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The next day, I saw it all over various social media pages. The effect was real, prompting a public warning from the police and justice officials. The warning was simple: courts do not demand immediate payment through QR codes.
At first glance, this may look like another scam. However, it points to a much larger problem. Online scams now function as a hidden tax on the digital economy.
That tax is paid in obvious ways by the people who lose money. It is also paid in less visible ways by everyone else. Consumers and businesses need to be extra cautious, spending more time checking transactions, protecting their data and recovering from fraud attempts.
Businesses invest more in data security, verification and fraud prevention. These additional costs do not just disappear; they are reflected in higher prices, delayed services and more friction in everyday transactions. Even people who never fall for a scam still pay for the environment that scams create.
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In 2025, Americans lost nearly $18 billion to cyber-enabled fraud and scams. At the same time, nearly 73% of U.S. adults reported having experienced an online scam or attack. Cybercrime imposes systematic costs on the economy, including $131 billion burden on small businesses alone. These costs are ultimately transferred to consumers through higher prices, fewer services or higher risk premiums.
The term “hidden tax” isn’t just a metaphor. In the formal tax system, people who earn more pay more. However, with scams, the burden falls hardest on people who are least able to absorb it. American households with lower incomes are more likely to report financial losses from fraud, and fewer than one-third of victims report incidents at all.
It is tempting to blame it on a single actor: careless consumers, negligent platforms, weak banks or slow government agencies. This framing misunderstands the problem. Digital scams do not result from a single failure. They exploit the gaps across a connected system.
Consumers have a major role to play. Many scams succeed because they create fear and urgency. The fake traffic notice worked because it threatened legal action and demanded immediate attention. Slowing down, verifying the source, refusing to scan suspicious QR codes, and using stronger account protections, such as multi-factor authentication, can prevent many losses before they occur.
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Individual vigilance alone is not enough. A digital economy cannot depend entirely on every person catching every fake in real time. Service providers, banks and digital platforms also have responsibilities. They can identify risky transactions, warn users about unusual payments, strengthen account security, and make scam reporting easier. The goal should not be broad content control or political censorship. It should be a targeted, transparent intervention against clear deception.
The government also has a role. Fraud reporting remains fragmented, and many victims never report losses. Coordination among agencies for real-time information sharing and at least one unified fraud data collection system can be a strong proactive approach to combating fraud. Since agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, and the Federal Communications Commission use different data collection formats and classifications, they oversee discrete portions of the problem. Better coordination can help identify and warn the public faster.
There are signs that strengthening coordination and information sharing can work. The Scam Center StrikeForce successfully secured America against Southeast Asian cryptocurrency-related fraud and scams through interagency coordination, restraining over $700 million in cryptocurrency.
Online scams are not a problem to solve alone. It requires combined, proactive efforts among users, service providers and institutions.
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Until that happens, online scams will continue to function as they do today: not as isolated incidents but as a persistent, hidden tax in the digital economy.
Baishali Rahman is a research specialist at the Challey Institute at North Dakota State University. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
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