FBI Says Cybercrime Cost Americans a Record $21 Billion in 2025
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A new FBI report reveals that the US saw a sharp rise in cybersecurity-related crimes, costing Americans close to $21 billion in 2025. Investment scams were the most common ways crooks tried to separate victims from their money, while cryptocurrency fraud inflicted the largest losses, reports Mactrast.
For the first time ever, the report includes Artificial Intelligence-related scams. The bureau says AI was used to forge documents, clone voices, and create deepfake videos that accounted for more than $893 million in fraud.
Internet Crime Report 2025
The sharp rise in cybercrime was revealed in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Report 2025, which was published this week.
The report says the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 1,008,597 total complaints, up an impressive amount from 859,532 in 2024. The most frequently reported scams included extortion (“I have photos I’ll reveal if you don’t pay”), investment schemes (“easy money with just a small investment!”), and phishing/spoofing schemes (“This is your bank” or “Nana? This is Gina, I’m in big trouble!”). Approximately 453,000 cyber-enabled fraud complaints were received by the IC3, with losses reportedly exceeding $17.7 billion.
Investment schemes have been around since the invention of money, and remain the most popular choice among the bad actors of the world, accounting for close to 49% of all scam-related losses. Americans who were hit by scams involving cryptocurrency reported the highest losses, as 181,565 complaints totaled more than $11 billion.
AI-powered fraud continues to grow, as it is now relatively simple for bad actors to create realistic-looking documents, create realistic-sounding spoofs of friends’ and family members’ voices, and deepfake videos.
The IC3 report for 2025 included a section on artificial intelligence-related scams for the first time ever. AI-related crimes accounted for 22,364 complaints, costing Americans nearly $893 million.
How Do I Protect Myself From Cyber Fraud?
Scammers typically use tactics to create a false sense of urgency. Using AI, bad actors can create realistic fakes, such as transaction receipts, bank statements, and other documents to make a victim believe they must react immediately or all is lost.
Scammers will try to convince you that you need to immediately pay a fine or pay back taxes to avoid serious consequences, such as an immediate arrest. Other popular scams involve convincing you to “protect” your bank account by transferring funds, or by convincing a grandparent that a grandchild needs immediate financial help to pay a fine, repair their car, or buy a ticket back from a foreign country.
The FBI says that you should “take a beat” when you’re faced with anyone presenting you with a seemingly urgent situation. Always resist any pressure to act on the spur of the moment and carefully assess the situation before turning over any funds or financial or personal information.
When you receive a call from someone claiming to be from the fraud team of your bank or credit card company, immediately hang up and contact them using the phone number printed on the back of your debit or credit card.
Since email addresses, social media profiles, phone calls, and even video calls can all now be easily spoofed, you should always contact a family member or friend via a different — and trusted — method. It’s also a good idea to set up a password that can be used by spouses, family members, or close friends to confirm their identity in case of a genuine emergency.
Seniors are an attractive target for internet scamsters, so take time to educate your older relatives and friends about these types of scams. Encourage them to never turn over any information without first confirming a caller’s identity.
The FBI has more detailed information on 20 separate categories of fraud on its website. In addition to the above mentioned types of fraud, the categories include: adoption fraud, employment fraud (which will likely be on the rise this year, due to the current state of the economy), charity and disaster fraud (always popular after a disaster), cryptocurrency investment fraud, sextortion, and ransomware.
