FBI says Americans reported nearly $21 billion in cybercrime losses in 2025
Americans filed more than 1 million complaints about internet-enabled crime in 2025, while reported losses reached nearly $21 billion, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 1,008,597 complaints and recorded $20.877 billion in reported losses, a 26% increase from 2024. The figures cover complaints submitted during calendar year 2025 and do not represent the full amount of fraud experienced in the United States.
The FBI highlighted the findings in its Spring 2026 outreach publication. That publication is a current summary and victim-reporting reminder; it does not represent a new 2026 incident count.
Older adults reported the largest losses
People age 60 and older filed 201,266 complaints and reported approximately $7.7 billion in losses, the largest total among the age groups listed by the FBI. The bureau said reported losses for that group rose 37% from 2024.
The figures should not be read as evidence that age alone causes victimization. Older adults may be targeted in investment, impersonation, technical-support and other scams, but the report does not establish a single cause for the higher loss total. Age information was not available for every complaint, so the age-group comparisons do not cover the entire dataset.
Complaint counts also are not necessarily counts of unique victims. The FBI said some complainants may file more than once, while reported losses are de-duplicated as much as possible.
Phishing was common; investment fraud caused the most reported losses
Phishing and spoofing generated the most complaints in the FBI’s crime-category data, with 191,561 reports. Investment fraud produced the largest category-level loss total, approximately $8.649 billion.
The report also recorded 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency and associated that descriptor with approximately $11.367 billion in reported losses. The FBI defines cryptocurrency as a descriptor indicating that a complaint contains some reference to virtual currency. Because descriptors are used alongside a selected crime type, the cryptocurrency figure can overlap with multiple kinds of crime; it does not mean every cryptocurrency complaint was an investment scam.
The FBI recorded 22,364 complaints involving artificial intelligence, with approximately $893.3 million in adjusted losses. The bureau described examples involving investment schemes, business-email compromise, romance scams and distress scams. The AI-related label means the complaint information contained a reference to artificial intelligence; it does not mean every case involved generative AI.
The FBI said complaint classifications and adjusted losses can change as analysts review information. The numbers therefore represent an assessment at a point in time, not a final count of all cybercrime or fraud losses.
What to do if you paid a scammer
Act quickly. Contact the bank, card issuer, wire service, payment app, cryptocurrency exchange or other provider used to send the money. Ask whether the transaction can be reversed, recalled or frozen. There is no guarantee that funds can be recovered, but a prompt report may preserve options for tracing or stopping a transfer.
Before deleting or blocking communications, save screenshots, emails, phone numbers, usernames, wallet addresses, transaction IDs, receipts and dates. Write down what happened in chronological order, including how the person contacted you, what identity or affiliation was claimed, how you were instructed to pay and where the money went.
File a complaint with IC3 as soon as possible. Include the scammer’s name or claimed affiliation, contact method, dates of contact, payment method, destination of funds and a detailed timeline. Report consumer fraud to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Contact local police when appropriate, particularly if there were threats, identity theft or an ongoing crime.
If account credentials or personal information were exposed, change compromised passwords, use unique passwords and enable multifactor authentication. Contact financial institutions about possible account monitoring or additional safeguards.
Be cautious of anyone who promises guaranteed recovery of lost funds. Recovery scams often target people who have already been defrauded. Do not send a second payment to a person or company claiming it can retrieve your money.
Sources
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 IC3 Annual Report
- FBI, The Outreach — Spring 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, New Data Show People Have Lost Billions to Social Media Scams
Look for updates to this story
Discover more from Interactive News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.