One million eight thousand five hundred and ninety-seven complaints. That is how many Americans contacted the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 to report a fraud loss. Together, they lost nearly $21 billion — more than the GDP of Iceland.
The report’s debut category this year tells you exactly where the fraud economy is headed. For the first time in IC3’s 25-year history, “artificial intelligence” is its own line item, with 22,364 complaints and $893 million in losses. Deepfakes, voice-cloned grandparent scams, and AI-generated investment pitches have moved from novelty to industrial scale in twelve months.
The losses concentrate where they always do: older Americans. Adults 60 and over reported $7.7 billion in losses, a roughly 60% jump from 2024. The new tools are good, the new tactics are precise, and the social engineering is patient.
Three patterns dominate. The first is voice cloning, where 15 seconds of audio scraped from social media is enough to mimic a relative calling in distress. Banks are seeing wire requests authorized over the phone by victims who heard a perfect copy of their daughter’s voice.
The second is deepfake video calls, often in romance and investment scams. The third is AI-generated content that floods authentic-looking websites and social profiles to lend legitimacy to a crypto or trading platform that will disappear after a few weeks. The common thread is plausibility. The new scams are no longer obviously fake.
Crypto fraud accounted for over half of total losses because three factors compound: transactions are irreversible, perpetrators can be offshore, and the marketing pitch (high yield, fast gains) selects for hopeful, financially stressed targets. The most common form is the “pig butchering” scam, where a relationship is cultivated for weeks before any investment ask is made.
The Justice Department recovered some funds in 2025, but the recovery rate remains in the single digits. Once money leaves a wallet, it is generally gone.
The defense playbook is unglamorous and effective. Set up family safe words to defeat voice clone attempts. Slow down any urgent money request — legitimate emergencies tolerate a call back. Never invest in a platform you found via social media DM or a dating app. Freeze your credit and your minor children’s credit. Enable account alerts. And remember: if a “yield” pitch sounds too good to be true, it is essentially always a confidence game.
Nearly $21 billion, according to the FBI’s IC3 report covering 1,008,597 complaints.
Cryptocurrency investment scams, at about $11.4 billion in reported losses.
22,364 complaints and $893 million in reported losses in the first year that IC3 tracked it as a category.
Adults age 60 and over lost $7.7 billion, a 60% increase year over year.
A long-form romance and investment scam in which the criminal builds trust over weeks before introducing a fake investment platform.
Sometimes, with prompt reporting to IC3 and a financial institution. Recovery rates remain low, especially for crypto.