According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, American victims lost a record $21 billion to cyber-enabled crimes in 2025—a 26 percent increase over the $16.6 billion reported in 2024. The agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 1 million complaints last year, up from 859,000 the previous year.
Cryptocurrency fraud has emerged as the most damaging category of cybercrime. The FBI reported that crypto-related scams caused losses exceeding $11 billion across 181,565 individual cases. While investment fraud accounted for 49 percent of all recorded incidents—totaling $8.6 billion—the specific subset of cryptocurrency schemes drove the highest absolute financial losses.
Phishing attacks were the most frequent complaint, with 191,000 reports submitted to the IC3. Extortion and general investment scams followed, with 89,000 and 72,000 reports respectively. Other serious incidents included 24,700 cases of business email compromise, 3,900 data breaches, and 3,600 ransomware attacks.
Emergence of AI-driven fraud
For the first time, the FBI included data on artificial intelligence-related scams, which accounted for 22,300 complaints and $893 million in losses. These sophisticated schemes utilized voice cloning, fake profiles, forged documents, and deepfake videos to deceive victims.
Demographic data indicates that Americans over the age of 60 were the hardest hit, reporting $7.7 billion in losses—a 37 percent increase compared to 2024. Furthermore, the FBI identified attacks targeting critical infrastructure, including dams and nuclear facilities, which the agency categorized as data breaches.
To combat the rising threat, the FBI initiated 3,900 Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC) interventions. These efforts allowed the agency to freeze $679 million of the $1.16 billion that attackers attempted to steal. The FBI also launched 'Operation Level Up' to identify and alert potential victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud. Of the 3,780 individuals notified through this program, 78 percent were previously unaware they were being targeted by scammers.
The FBI advises the public to exercise caution regarding urgent requests and high-pressure tactics. The agency urges individuals to verify the authenticity of any communication before transferring money or sharing sensitive data, and to report suspected compromises to the IC3.
