FBI Report: Global Cybercrime Losses Skyrocket to Record $20.8 Billion

WASHINGTON D.C. — Online crime reached a staggering financial milestone in 2025 as total losses surged to $20.877 billion, marking a 26% increase over the previous year, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report. The data reveals a digital landscape increasingly dominated by high-stakes fraud, with over one million complaints filed—averaging nearly 3,000 per day. While phishing and spoofing remains the most common tactic with over 191,000 reported incidents, investment scams proved to be the most devastating to victims' bank accounts, draining $8.6 billion.

Jose Perez, Operations Director for the Bureau’s Criminal and Cyber Branch, noted that since the IC3's founding, reporting has surged from a few thousand a month to a constant daily deluge. Cryptocurrency continues to be the primary engine for these financial crimes, linked to $11.3 billion in total losses, much of which is orchestrated by organized criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia that utilize human trafficking victims as forced labor. The 2025 report also marks a historical shift with the first-ever dedicated section on Artificial Intelligence, attributing nearly $893 million in losses to AI-driven deception, including sophisticated impersonation campaigns and business email compromise.

Despite the evolution of these threats, the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team saw significant success, freezing $679 million in stolen funds through thousands of rapid response actions. While ransomware variants continue to multiply and international complaints pour in from over 200 countries, federal officials are urging the public to heighten their digital diligence. Perez emphasized that as the world embraces emerging technologies like AI, the complexity of cyber-enabled crime will only continue to evolve, making personal cybersecurity and a limited social media footprint more critical than ever for individual and corporate safety.