The risk of fraud isn’t anything new, but as technology evolves, it’s becoming uncomfortably common.

In 2025, consumers submitted 3 million fraud reports, with losses totaling $15.9 billion, according to government data. Total losses from scams have risen every year for the past six years, and are now nearly 430% higher than they were in 2020—and that’s just from cases that people reported.

Text messages and social media are the most common ways scammers contact consumers, so it’s important to be skeptical of anyone asking for money, and always remember to slow down when finances are involved. Fraudsters rely on urgency to carry out their schemes.

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The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected again in April, even as total employment reached its lowest level in more than a year, which suggests a stabilizing job market despite stubborn inflation.

Consumer sentiment dropped again in May to another record low, according to a widely tracked survey by the University of Michigan.

A Frozen Housing Market

Spring is here, but the housing market is still frozen at a standstill.

Existing home sales in the normally busy month of March dropped by 3.6%, as buying remains out of reach for most, thanks to record home prices and elevated mortgage rates. And the Iran war has dashed any hopes of a thaw in time for the crucial spring buying season—with volatile energy prices bringing uncertainty into an economy already on shaky footing.

“Home sellers are not in a desperate situation,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, told Forbes Daily’s Danielle Chemtob. “So the inventory........

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