Most scam statistics online are copies of copies, often with the year or the source lost along the way. Every number on this page was read from the original report, and each section names the document it came from, so you can check it or cite it directly.
The short version: Americans reported losing $20.9 billion to the FBI in 2025 and $15.9 billion to the FTC, both records. In both datasets investment scams caused the largest losses by far. The scam reported most often, phishing, accounts for about 1% of the money lost in the FBI’s figures. People aged 60 and over filed 20% of FBI complaints but carried 37% of the losses.
The headline numbers
| Source | Covers | Reports | Reported losses | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center | Cyber-related complaints, 2025 | 1,008,597 | $20.877 billion | Losses up 26% |
| US Federal Trade Commission | Fraud reports, 2025 | 3 million | $15.9 billion | Up from over $12 billion |
| UK Finance | Payment fraud at UK banks, 2025 | 4,062,198 confirmed cases | £1.28 billion | Losses up 4%, cases up 11% |
These totals should not be added together. The FTC lists the FBI’s complaint centre as one of the data contributors to its own database, so some of the same reports appear in both. They also count different things: the FBI’s figure includes business losses, while the FTC’s comes from consumer fraud reports.
What people reported to the FBI in 2025
The average loss across all FBI complaints was $20,699, but that average hides enormous differences between crime types.
| Crime type | Complaints | Losses | Average per complaint (our calculation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Investment | 72,984 | $8,648,617,756 | About $118,500 |
| Business email compromise | 24,768 | $3,046,598,558 | About $123,000 |
| Tech and customer support | 47,794 | $2,134,675,818 | About $44,700 |
| Personal data breach | 67,456 | $1,314,923,988 | About $19,500 |
| Confidence and romance | 23,159 | $929,287,469 | About $40,100 |
| Government impersonation | 32,424 | $797,943,193 | About $24,600 |
| Non-payment and non-delivery | 56,478 | $503,373,587 | About $8,900 |
| Phishing and spoofing | 191,561 | $215,843,126 | About $1,100 |
| Extortion | 89,129 | $122,499,133 | About $1,400 |
| Ransomware | 3,611 | $32,320,105 | About $9,000 |
The scam reported most is not the one that costs most
Phishing and spoofing produced 19% of all FBI complaints and about 1% of the losses. Investment scams produced 7% of complaints and 41% of the losses. The FTC’s numbers point the same way: imposter scams were its most-reported fraud, with more than a million reports and over $3.5 billion lost, while investment scams led by money at over $7.9 billion, roughly half of all reported losses.
Phishing’s small share needs care, though. A fake message is often only the first step of a larger crime, and someone who loses money afterwards may report it under another heading. The low figure more likely shows how the categories work than how harmless phishing is. Scam emails can also pass the checks people rely on, so a message that looks properly signed is not automatically safe.
Who loses the most
People aged 60 and over filed 201,266 FBI complaints in 2025, up 37% on the year before, and reported $7.748 billion in losses, up 59%. That is 20% of all complaints and 37% of all losses. Their average loss was $38,500, and 12,444 of them lost more than $100,000.
Among older complainants the most common reports were phishing and spoofing (48,064), tech and customer support scams (21,333) and investment scams (16,926). The FTC says the rise in its own total is driven largely by a sharp increase in people reporting losses of $100,000 or more.
How scammers reach people and take the money
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Complaints mentioning cryptocurrency | 181,565, with $11.37 billion lost (54% of FBI losses) | FBI |
| Complaints with an AI element | 22,364, with $893 million lost | FBI |
| Most common contact method | Text message | FTC |
| Contact method with the highest losses | Social media, over $2 billion (fiscal 2025) | FTC |
| Payment method with the highest losses | Bank payments, followed by cryptocurrency | FTC |
| UK scams that begin online | 66%, with a further 17% via telecoms | UK Finance |
The FBI lists cryptocurrency and AI as descriptors rather than crime types, so these complaints overlap with the categories in the earlier table. AI-related complaints are about 4% of FBI losses, which is a useful correction to the idea that AI is behind most scams. Most of the money is still lost through older methods.
Text messages being the top contact method fits what the fraud looks like day to day: fake parcel notices, unpaid tolls and traffic fines. Before opening one of those links, you can see where it really goes with the Link Expander, and read a printed code without opening it using the QR Code Decoder.
The UK picture
UK Finance splits fraud by whether the customer was tricked into making the payment. Criminals taking money without permission (unauthorised fraud) fell 5% to £703.4 million, while scams where victims were persuaded to pay (authorised fraud) rose 19% to £576.4 million across 248,070 cases.
Investment scams were the largest authorised category at £221.5 million, the highest figure UK Finance has recorded for them. Purchase scams reached £118.1 million and romance scams £39.2 million, also records. Impersonation of banks and police fell to £55.5 million, its lowest since 2020.
How much phishing is out there
The Anti-Phishing Working Group counts phishing sites rather than victims. It recorded 1,069,681 attacks in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.1% from 971,181 in the first quarter. June alone reached 425,808, the highest monthly total since April 2023. Between the first and second quarters, phishing by text message rose 40% and by voice call 20%, according to APWG member Crane Authentication.
What these numbers can’t tell you
- They only count what was reported. The FTC told Congress its figures are “just a fraction” of actual losses, because many victims never report.
- A rise can mean more reporting. More complaints can reflect wider awareness as well as more crime.
- Averages can mislead. A few very large losses pull an average up, so the averages in the table above don’t describe a typical victim.
- The categories differ. The FBI, FTC and UK Finance each define scam types their own way, so compare like with like only within one source.
- Most data here is American or British. It doesn’t describe other countries.
What to do with this
The money goes where a scammer has had time to build trust: fake investments, fake support staff and fake colleagues asking for a payment. The best protection is often a pause and a call to a number you already have. The free Scams and Staying Safe course teaches those checks in seven short lessons, and the Scam Test shows how well you would spot one. If you’ve already lost money, be wary of anyone offering to get it back: recovery scams target people who have just been defrauded.
Sources and how to cite this page
You’re welcome to use these figures. Please cite the original report for the number itself, and link to this page if the summary helped. Last checked: 8 November 2026.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2025 IC3 Annual Report: totals and crime types (pages 6–8), AI (page 39), age 60 and over (pages 44–45).
- Federal Trade Commission, Prepared Statement to the Joint Economic Committee, 25 March 2026.
- UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026: totals (pages 12–13), scam types (page 18), where scams begin (page 5).
- Anti-Phishing Working Group, Phishing Activity Trends Report, Q2 2026 (pages 3–4).