FBI report reveals cybercrime losses hit $20B in 2025,+26% from 2024

In 2025, losses reported to FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) continued to climb, surpassing the $20 billion mark. Investment-related fraud was once again the largest component of these losses, followed by business email compromises and tech support scams.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Report 2025, compiled from the IC3, reports that losses have climbed 26 percent from 2024, to reach a total of $20.88 billion in losses. The average loss was $20,699.

The age demographic of over 60s suffered the worst, far in front with losses of $7.75 billion and 201,266 complaints. The demographic just below — the 50 to 59 group — suffered the second-most with $3.68 billion in losses and 124,820 complaints.

Combined, these two demographics (50 to 60-plus) accounted for more than half of all losses in 2025. Phishing and spoofing is the most common complaint category, with 191,561 reports. Extortion followed with 89,129 complaints.

„For the past quarter-century, IC3 has been the primary connection between the FBI and the public for information related to cyber-enabled criminal activity. Since our founding, reporting to IC3 has surged. We received a few thousand complaints per month in our early days. We now average almost 3,000 complaints per day.” said Jose A. Perez, Operations Director for Criminal and Cyber Branch, FBI.

Complainants 17 Years Old or Younger

Recent trends indicate a serious rise in cybercrimes targeting minors (17 years old or younger), driven by sextortion, cyberbullying, and online grooming. In 2025, IC3 referred more than 5,700 submissions
involving minors. 10% of them are related to crypto.

Identity theft and impersonation are among the financially damaging schemes recorded, with the former accounting for $185.8 million in losses, while government impersonation scams resulted in $797.9 million in losses. The most damaging crime types were investment, business email compromise, tech and customer support, personal data breach, and confidence or romance scams. Investment fraud accounted for $8.65 billion in losses.

The FBI notes that “cyber‑enabled fraud” now represents nearly 85 percent of all losses reported to IC3, and 45 percent of all complaints, revealing its devastating nature. This is where criminals use the Internet or other technology to commit fraud and which involves the theft of money, data, identities, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services.