Cybercrime cost victims over $17.7 billion during 2025, as financial losses to internet-enabled fraud continue to grow.<\/p>\n
Published on April 6, the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report<\/em><\/a>, detailed how the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over a million complaints about suspected cyber fraud during 2025, an average of almost 3000 complaints a day. This is up from the 859,532 complaints received in 2024.<\/p>\n The financial cost of cybercrime involving victims in the US increased to excess of $17.7bn during 2025, up from losses of $16bn in 2024.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency investment scams<\/a> accounted for the highest single source of financial fraud, accounting for $7.2bn in losses to victims alone. Cryptocurrency scams often promise a high return on investments, but the victim sees nothing of the sort: instead, the fraudsters disappear with the stolen cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n Business Email Compromise<\/a> (BEC) fraud is listed as the second most financially costly cybercrime during 2025, accounting for over $3bn in losses.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, fake tech or customer support scams<\/a> cost victims over $2bn during the period, making it the third largest form of internet fraud.<\/p>\n Identity theft, data breaches and ransomware<\/a> also featured among the cyber-enabled crimes which cost victims the most during 2025.<\/p>\n For the first time in its 25 year history, the Internet Crime Report<\/em> featured a section on artificial intelligence, which reflects how the technology has become a prominent and useful tool for cyber fraudsters<\/a>.<\/p>\n During 2025, victims lost a combined total of nearly $893m to AI-enabled fraud and the FBI received 22,364 complaints related to artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n “AI-enabled synthetic content is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make, which allows criminal actors to potentially conduct successful fraud schemes against individuals, businesses and financial institutions,” said the report.<\/p>\n AI-generated content has been used in phishing emails<\/a> as well as full-fledged audio and video deepfakes<\/a>, all of which fraudsters can abuse to trick victims into transferring money. This can range from romance scams to the use of entirely fake online personas which are exploited to apply for and get hired to remote jobs<\/a>, with that access then used to defraud the company.<\/p>\n As fraudsters continue to take advantage of new tactics and technologies, the FBI has urged individuals to be mindful of online threats.<\/p>\n “It has never been more important to be diligent with your cybersecurity, social media footprint, and electronic interactions,” said Jose A. Perez, operations director for Criminal and Cyber Branch, FBI.<\/p>\n “Cyber threats and cyber-enabled crime will continue to evolve as the world embraces emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence,” he added.<\/p>\nThe Cost of AI-Enabled Cyber Fraud<\/strong><\/h2>\n