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Interpreting the FBI "2025 Internet Crime Report": AI scams become the biggest variable, and the over-60 age group becomes the primary target of crypto scams
Author: SlowMist Technology
On April 7, 2026, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released the “2025 Internet Crime Report.” The report coincides with the 25th anniversary of the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Based on over 1 million complaint data collected in 2025, it provides an in-depth analysis of the historic loss scale exceeding $20.8 billion, victim profiles, investment scams, and other core crime types. It also highlights the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) in online scams and breakthroughs in asset recovery by law enforcement.
This article will interpret the core content of the report to help readers quickly grasp the dynamic changes in global cybersecurity threats in 2025 and enhance their understanding and prevention capabilities against complex online scams and AI-driven threats.
Key Point 1: IC3 Complaint Data in 2025
In 2025, IC3 received a total of 1,008,597 complaints, involving a total loss of $20.88B, a 26% increase from 2024. The average loss per incident was approximately $20,699. Among these, 85% of losses were caused by online scams.
Complaints related to cryptocurrencies totaled 181,565, resulting in losses of $11.37B, a 22% increase from 2024. Among them, 18,589 investors lost more than $100k. Of all complainants, the highest proportion was in the 60+ age group.
Key Point 2: Victim Group Analysis
60+ years: 201,266 complaints, approximately $7.75 billion in losses.
50-59 years: 124,820 complaints, approximately $3.68 billion in losses.
40-49 years: 167,066 complaints, approximately $2.96 billion in losses.
30-39 years: 153,293 complaints, approximately $1.74 billion in losses.
20-29 years: 112,069 complaints, approximately $560 million in losses.
Under 20 years: 31,254 complaints, approximately $67.1 million in losses.
In cryptocurrency investment scams, the 60+ age group had the highest complaint volume (13,685 cases), with losses reaching $2.76 billion, far exceeding other age groups. This group was also most affected by cryptocurrency ATM/Kiosk scams, with 6,188 complaints and losses of about $257 million. Due to lack of understanding of emerging financial technologies and payment methods (such as cryptocurrency ATMs, QR code transfers), combined with relatively weak scam awareness, the 60+ demographic has become a key target for scammers.
Notably, many victims, after their first scam, fell prey to secondary scams by trusting so-called “fund recovery services”—in “Recovery Scams,” this age group again led with 2,529 complaints and losses exceeding $540 million.
Most common scam types: phishing / identity impersonation, technical support / customer service scams, investment scams, personal data leaks, romance / trust scams.
Most costly scam types: investment scams, technical support / customer service scams, romance / trust scams, business email compromise (BEC), impersonation of government officials.
Key Point 3: Crime Type Analysis
Phishing / electronic deception: 191,561 cases.
Extortion: 89,129 cases.
Investment scams: 72,984 cases.
Personal data leaks: 67,456 cases.
Unpaid / undelivered goods: 56,478 cases.
Investment scams: approximately $100k.
Business email compromise (BEC): approximately $8.65B.
Technical support / customer service scams: approximately $3.05B.
Personal data leaks: approximately $2.14B.
Romance / trust scams: approximately $929 million.
Most complaints: investment scams (61,559 cases), extortion (23,797 cases).
Largest losses: investment scams (about $7.28 billion), technical support / customer service scams (about $1.23 billion).
Key Point 4: Online Scams and Law Enforcement Achievements
In 2025, IC3 received 452,868 online scam complaints, causing a loss of $1.32B, accounting for 85% of the total annual loss.
The most common transaction types involved in complaints include cryptocurrencies, wire transfers / ACH transfers, debit/credit cards, peer-to-peer transfers, gift cards/prepaid cards, checks/bank drafts, and cash.
Account Takeover: about 4,700 cases, losses of $359.7 million.
Gold Express Scam: about 725 complaints, losses of $311.8 million.
Investment Club Scam: about 1,600 complaints, losses of $160 million.
Impersonation of Government Officials: about 32,000 complaints, losses of $798 million.
In 2025, the types of cyber threats reported to IC3 included:
Data leaks: 39%, the most common type.
Ransomware: 36%, second.
SIM card swapping: 10%.
Malware: 9%.
Botnets: 7%.
Among these, 3,600 ransomware complaints caused losses exceeding $32 million. Major ransomware variants include Akira, Qilin, INC./Lynx/Sinobi, BianLian, Play, Ransomhub, Lockbit, Dragonforce, SAFEPA, Medusa.
In response to the frequent ransomware attacks, FBI recommends organizations take key protective measures such as:
Creating offsite or offline backups and regularly maintaining backup and recovery mechanisms;
Removing default passwords and credentials during software installation;
Disabling and removing unnecessary protocols by default;
Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all services whenever possible;
Protecting initial intrusion points;
Implementing network segmentation to prevent ransomware spread;
Promptly updating all operating systems, software, and firmware.
In 2025, FBI RAT intercepted 3,900 cases through FFKC, freezing $679 million, with a 58% success rate in fund interception.
The “Operation Level Up” (Operation Level Up) issued warnings to over 8,000 victims and recovered over $500 million in potential losses for these victims.
In cooperation with Indian law enforcement, they targeted call center scams, achieving over 475 arrests through 27 joint operations.
In financial fraud projects, multiple large sums of funds were successfully frozen and recovered.
Key Point 5: Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cybercrime
In 2025, IC3 received over 22k complaints involving AI-related information, with total losses exceeding $17.7B.
Investment scams: 4,356 cases.
Extortion: 1,764 cases.
Personal data leaks: 1,204 cases.
Phishing / impersonation scams: 803 cases.
Harassment / stalking: 763 cases.
Investment scams: approximately $632.04 million.
Business email compromise (BEC): approximately $30.26 million.
Technical support / customer service scams: approximately $19.46 million.
Romance / trust scams: approximately $19.04 million.
Personal data leaks: approximately $18.77 million.
According to the report, AI has been widely used in the following typical scam scenarios:
Business email compromise (BEC): Generating impersonated executive emails or voice clones to issue transfer instructions, with losses exceeding $30 million in 2025;
Romance / trust scams: Using AI to generate fake identities and dialogue scripts, even employing voice cloning to simulate family help scenarios, with losses over $19 million;
Recruitment scams: Using voice forgery or deepfake technology during remote interviews to gain internal access, with losses close to $13 million;
Investment scams: Using AI to mass-produce personalized communication content and forge videos and voices of celebrities or authorities, with losses exceeding $632 million.
Overall, AI is lowering the barrier to scams and significantly enhancing the scale and disguise capabilities of attacks.
Summary
The “2025 Internet Crime Report” published by the FBI further reveals the deep evolution of the current cybercrime ecosystem: on one hand, the scale of scams continues to rise, with cryptocurrencies remaining a key vehicle for fund transfer and money laundering; on the other hand, criminal methods are accelerating from traditional “opportunistic fraud” to “precision and industrialized operations,” especially with high penetration into the elderly demographic and the spread of “recovery scams” and secondary frauds, reflecting attackers’ deep exploitation of victims’ psychology and behavioral patterns. Meanwhile, the introduction of artificial intelligence technology is significantly lowering the threshold for scams and amplifying attack efficiency, gradually transforming online scams into complex threats characterized by automation and scale.
Despite law enforcement achieving phased results in fund interception and international cooperation, the overall loss scale and growth trend remain severe. For ordinary users, establishing basic risk awareness and anti-fraud consciousness has become an essential “core course” in the digital age; for industry participants and regulators, enhancing the ability to comprehensively identify fund flows, behavioral patterns, and abnormal signals through technology, as well as strengthening cross-regional coordination, will be key to combating new types of cybercrime in the future.