Americans lost nearly $20.9 billion to cybercrime last year, representing a 26% surge from the year before, as scammers increasingly turned to cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence to facilitate their crimes, according to a new report by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.
The IC3 received more than one million complaints in 2025, up from roughly 859,000 in 2024. Investment fraud alone accounted for more than $8.6 billion in losses last year. Business email compromises accounted for $3 billion in losses, followed by tech/customer support fraud at $2.1 billion and personal data breaches at $1.3 billion.
The elderly remain the primary target for fraudsters, with victims aged 60 or over reporting more than $7.7 billion in losses. Victims aged 50-59 reported more than $3.6 billion in losses, with younger age groups reporting less. The average loss among all victims was $20,699. That average increased to $62,604 when crypto was involved. Complaints involving cryptocurrency accounted for more than $11 billion in total losses, a 22% increase from 2024.
For the first time this year, the IC3 report included a section on AI-facilitated fraud, which accounted for more than 22,000 complaints and nearly $893 million in losses. “Scammers rely on pressure techniques to defraud Americans while deploying fake social profiles, voice clones, identification documents, and believable videos depicting public figures or loved ones,” the agency said.
