The numbers are in — and they’re the worst in American history.
On April 7, 2026, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual report covering cybercrime losses in 2025. The headline figure: $20.877 billion lost by Americans to online fraud and cybercrime — a 26% jump from 2024. For the first time ever, the IC3 crossed one million complaints in a single year.
That’s roughly 2,762 crime reports filed every single day.
The Scale Is Hard to Comprehend
Let’s put $20.9 billion in context. That’s more than the GDP of over 80 countries. It’s enough to buy the entire NBA twice. It’s a number that grows by more than $57 million every single day.
And it’s almost certainly an undercount. Research consistently shows that fewer than 15% of fraud victims report their losses to law enforcement. The true scale of cybercrime in America may be five to seven times larger than what the FBI captured.
Here’s how the losses broke down by crime type:
| Crime Type | 2025 Losses |
|---|---|
| Investment Fraud | $8.65 billion |
| Business Email Compromise | $3.05 billion |
| Tech/Customer Support Scams | $2.13 billion |
| Personal Data Breach | $1.3 billion |
| Ransomware | $32 million (259% increase) |
| AI-Facilitated Fraud | $893 million |
Investment Fraud Is Eating America Alive
Investment fraud — primarily fake cryptocurrency platforms, pig butchering romance scams, and fraudulent trading apps — accounted for $8.65 billion in losses. That’s more than 41 cents of every dollar lost to cybercrime in 2025.
The playbook is always the same: a stranger contacts you online, builds trust over weeks or months, introduces you to a “can’t miss” investment opportunity, and helps you “grow” your portfolio — until the day you try to withdraw and everything vanishes.
Cryptocurrency made these scams catastrophically effective. Crypto transactions are fast, irreversible, and cross international borders instantly. Once the money moves, it’s almost impossible to recover.
AI-Powered Fraud: The New Category That Should Terrify You
For the first time in its history, the IC3 dedicated a standalone section to AI-facilitated fraud. The numbers from year one:
- 22,000+ complaints involving AI-related scams
- $893 million in total losses
- $632 million of that from AI-generated investment fraud alone
What does AI-powered fraud actually look like in practice?
Deepfake video scams — Fraudsters create convincing videos of celebrities, financial experts, or even a victim’s family members endorsing fake investment platforms or urgently requesting money.
Voice cloning — Scammers clone the voice of a loved one from social media recordings and call elderly victims claiming to be in an emergency, demanding wire transfers. The FBI traced more than $5 million in losses specifically to AI voice cloning in distress scams.
AI-generated phishing — Machine learning allows criminals to generate personalized, grammatically perfect phishing emails at scale — eliminating the spelling errors and awkward phrasing that used to make scam emails easier to spot.
Synthetic identity creation — AI tools can generate fake personas complete with profile photos, social media histories, and professional credentials — making the romance scammer or fake financial advisor look completely legitimate.
Seniors Are Being Decimated
The statistic that should outrage every American: adults 60 and older lost $7.748 billion to cybercrime in 2025 — a 59% increase from 2024.
That’s not just a number. That’s retirement savings wiped out. Medical funds drained. Homes mortgaged to cover fake “investment losses.” Parents, grandparents, and retirees who did everything right, destroyed by criminals who specifically target the most vulnerable.
- Seniors filed 201,266 complaints — up 37% year over year
- Their average loss was $38,500 — nearly double the overall average of $20,699
- 12,444 seniors each lost more than $100,000
- Over 2,000 lost more than $500,000
The top fraud types destroying senior finances:
- Investment fraud: $3.52 billion
- Tech support scams: $1.04 billion
- Romance/confidence scams: $584 million
Tech support scams — where criminals impersonate Microsoft, Apple, or bank security teams to gain remote access to computers — are particularly devastating to older adults who may be less familiar with how these companies actually operate. By the time the victim realizes what happened, their accounts have been drained.
Government Impersonation Doubled
One of the sharpest year-over-year spikes: government impersonation scams nearly doubled. Complaints rose from roughly 17,300 in 2024 to nearly 32,500 in 2025, with $797 million in losses.
Scammers pretend to be Social Security Administration agents, IRS investigators, FBI officers, or Medicare representatives. They tell victims their identity has been stolen, their Social Security number has been “suspended,” or there’s a warrant out for their arrest — and demand immediate payment via wire transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to “resolve” the issue.
Real government agencies never contact you this way.
Crypto Fraud Hit $11.4 Billion
Cryptocurrency-related fraud complaints reached $11.4 billion in losses in 2025 — up 22% from 2024. Nearly 60% of all reported cybercrime losses now involve cryptocurrency in some form.
This is partly because cryptocurrency is the preferred payment method for virtually every major scam category:
- Pig butchering investment scams are settled entirely in crypto
- Romance scammers funnel stolen money through crypto wallets
- Tech support criminals force victims to deposit into Bitcoin ATMs
- Ransomware demands are payable in cryptocurrency only
The anonymity, speed, and irreversibility of crypto transactions make it the perfect tool for financial crime.
What This Means For You
The 2025 IC3 report isn’t just statistics — it’s a map of how criminals are targeting American families right now. Here’s what you should take away:
On investment opportunities: If someone you met online is offering you investment advice, stop. If it involves cryptocurrency you’ve never heard of, stop. If there’s urgency — “the window closes tomorrow” — stop. Legitimate investments don’t require immediate action from strangers.
On unexpected contacts: Any call, text, or email from someone claiming to be from the IRS, FBI, Social Security, Microsoft, or your bank — demanding immediate payment or remote access — is a scam. Hang up. Call the agency directly using the number on their official website.
On AI impersonation: Before wiring money to a “family member” in distress, call them back on a number you already have. Ask a question only they would know. AI voice cloning is convincing — verification takes 30 seconds.
On reporting: If you or someone you know has been victimized, report it to the IC3 at ic3.gov. Even if the money can’t be recovered, your report helps law enforcement identify patterns and pursue criminals.
The IC3’s $2.7 Billion Recovery Win
Buried in the grim numbers is one piece of good news. The IC3’s Recovery Asset Team (RAT), which works to freeze fraudulent wire transfers, successfully froze $2.7 billion in potential losses in 2025 — a significant increase from prior years.
The key? Speed. When victims report fraud within 72 hours of a wire transfer, there’s a meaningful window to freeze funds before they leave the U.S. financial system. If you’ve been victimized, don’t wait.
The 2025 Internet Crime Report is the definitive picture of what the scam economy looks like today — and it’s a picture of industrialized crime at a scale that should shock every policymaker, every financial institution, and every American family. The criminals are organized, well-funded, and increasingly sophisticated. The best defense remains what it always has been: know how they operate, slow down when something feels off, and when in doubt, verify before you act.
Report cybercrime at ic3.gov. If it’s an emergency involving financial fraud, call your bank immediately — and the IC3 RAT team may be able to freeze your funds before they’re gone.
