FBI 2025 Internet Crime Report: Cybercrime Losses $20.9B, Financial Sector Third Most Targeted

April 16, 2026

FBI Releases Its 2025 Internet Crime Report and Highlights Significant Cyber Threats to Financial Institutions and Their Customers

Taylor Bandy, Roxanne Rehm, Elizabeth C. Wheeler Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. + Follow Contact LinkedIn Facebook X ;) Embed The numbers are in, and the news is not good. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently published its annual Internet Crime Report [1], revealing that Americans lost more than $20 billion to cybercrime in 2025.

Key takeaways from the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report and Elder Fraud activity last year:

• Dollar losses associated with Elder Fraud in 2025 eclipsed those the prior year, coming in at $7.748 billion (up 59% from 2024 losses of $4.8 billion), with $3.5 billion tied to Investment Fraud. [2]
• Complaints rose 37% from 2024.
• The most reported scams targeting older adults were:
  • Phishing/Spoofing scams (48,000+ complaints),
  • Tech/Customer Support (21,000), and
  • Investment Scams (17,000).
• A defining trend in 2025 was the expanded role of generative AI and cryptocurrency in enabling fraud. The FBI’s use of “descriptors: - which track the tools or methods used to commit all types of fraud – highlights how fraudsters are effectively exploiting their victims and moving funds. Cryptocurrency and generative AI featured prominently as descriptors in 2025. Cryptocurrency Fraud was not only the source for more Investment Fraud losses than any other type of investment, it frequently also served as the mechanism by which fraudsters laundered their ill-gotten gains from other types of fraud.

Generative AI has also emerged as a rapidly growing threat associated with a variety of different types of fraud, serving as a means through which fraudsters target and deceive their victims. This synthetic content is becoming increasingly sophisticated, is readily available to bad actors, and is easy to create, allowing fraudsters to execute scams with greater complexity and scale and maximize the effectiveness of long-standing fraud schemes.

For example, in 2025, Romance Scams targeting older adults saw a 30% increase, Phishing/Spoofing scams against individuals aged 60+ rose over 100%, and Government Impersonation scams nearly doubled. Fraudsters are now leveraging voice cloning, deepfake videos, and highly realistic fake images to create convincing, personalized attacks.

The IC3 received more than 22,000 complaints in 2025 that involved scams using some form of AI-related technology, and more than 180,000 scams involved the use of cryptocurrency to launder funds illegally obtained through fraud. With the exception of Business Email Compromise (“BEC”) fraud (which is typically accomplished through wire transfer), cryptocurrency was the primary method by which victims were separated from their money in two-thirds of the Top 5 fraud categories by dollar loss. [3]

Other key takeaways from the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report for all age groups:

• Total reported dollar losses associated with cybercrime in 2025 surged to $20.877 billion, a nearly 26% increase from 2024.
• Phishing / Spoofing scams (192,000 reports) were the most prevalent scam type, representing more than double the number of complaints about the second (Extortion, 89,129 reports) and third (Investment Scams, 72,984) most reported types of scams in 2025.
• In all age groups, the largest dollar losses were associated with Investment Scams – $8.65 billion – with $7.2 billion associated with Cryptocurrency Investment fraud, a 25% increase over reported Crypto Fraud losses in 2024.
• Complaints involving Crypto Investment fraud increased 48% year-over-year.
• The Top 5 scams by dollar loss per victim also included BEC ($3 billion), Tech Support Scams ($2.1 billion), Confidence/Romance Schemes ($929 million), and Government Impersonation ($800 million).
• Cyber-enabled fraud [4] accounted for almost 85% of all losses reported to IC3 in 2025.
• Tech Support Scams continue to be among the Top 5 threats, both in total number of victims and in dollar losses per victim.
• Internationally, the leading destinations for fraudulent wire transfers were Hong Kong, followed by Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and China. Financial institutions have made incredible strides toward combatting fraud and continue to devote immense resources toward that effort. But at the same time, generative AI and related technology are advancing at a rapid pace. No matter what laws are implemented to try to prevent fraud as the world struggles to keep pace, Education and Awareness remain among the most effective defenses. Educating Seniors and others about fraud is incredibly effective at decreasing susceptibility. Research by FINRA shows that if consumers have heard about a particular scam, they are 80% less likely to engage, and if they do engage, they are 40% less likely to fall victim. Proactive customer education – especially for seniors and other vulnerable populations – can significantly reduce fraud risk.

Direct harm to customers isn’t the only threat the FBI has cautioned about. The IC3’s Internet Crime Report also reiterates a theme we’ve seen throughout the last year in the FBI’s Public Service Announcements and Industry Alerts: cyber threats to critical infrastructure remain a top concern. The Financial Services sector is now the third most targeted critical infrastructure sector, up from fourth place in 2024. Across all 16 critical infrastructure sectors, Ransomware and Data Breach incidents resulted in over $261 billion in losses in 2025.

These threats persist in 2026 and are increasingly tied to sophisticated, state-affiliated threat actors, with global conflict heightening risk further. [5] For more information on reducing cybersecurity risk to critical infrastructure, see the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) publication “Primary Mitigations to Reduce Cyber Threats to Operational Technology” (May 6, 2025) https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/primary-mitigations-reduce-cyber-threats-operational-technology. [6]

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report makes one thing clear:  cybercrime is not only growing – it is evolving rapidly. The convergence of GenAI, cryptocurrency, and increasingly sophisticated attack methods presents a complex and expanding challenge.

[1] FBI 2025 Internet Crime Report https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf

[2] Importantly, the Internet Crime Report reflects only reported losses. While these figures are useful for identifying broader trends, they almost certainly understate the true scale of harm, as many incidents of fraud go unreported.

[3] Cryptocurrency was the primary means used to launder illicit proceeds for Extortion, Government Impersonation, Tech Support and Investment Scams in 2025. Wire transfer was the primary means associated with reported BEC fraud, and prepaid or gift cards were the top method of laundering funds from Confidence/Romance Scams.

[4] “Cyber-enabled fraud” describes the use the Internet or other technology to commit fraud, and may include the theft of money, data, identities, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services. See FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report.

[5] See, for example, April 7, 2026 Joint Cybersecurity Advisory “ Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure” https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa26-097a;  FBI April 7, 2026 Public Service Announcement “ Russian GRU Exploiting Vulnerable Routers to Steal Sensitive Information ” Alert Number: I-040726-PSA Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Russian GRU Exploiting Vulnerable Routers to Steal Sensitive Information;  December 9, 2025 Joint Cybersecurity Advisory “ Pro-Russia Hacktivists Conduct Opportunistic Attacks Against US and Global Critical Infrastructure ” https://www.ic3.gov/CSA/2025/251209.pdf.

[6] See also FBI publication “S ecure Connectivity Principles for Operational Technology ” (January 14, 2026) https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/alerts/2026/secure-connectivity-principles-for-operational-technology.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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