The reference agencies
FBI — Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
The FBI's IC3 collects complaints directly from victims of internet-enabled crime and publishes a detailed annual report. Its 2025 edition, the most complete accounting of reported cybercrime in the country, is the reference figure cited by federal agencies, financial institutions and the press.
FTC — Consumer Sentinel Network
The Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Network compiles millions of consumer fraud, identity theft and complaint reports every year into a public data book, sorted into dozens of categories — the standard source for tracking which scam types are actually reaching the most people.
Who's affected
The two agencies point to different but complementary pictures. By dollar volume, the FBI's IC3 data is unambiguous: Americans over 60 lost more than any other age group in 2025 — roughly $7.7 billion, with 7,500+ complainants in that group losing over $100,000 each in the prior year's data. By report frequency, the FTC's numbers tell a different story: imposter scams remain the most commonly reported category by individual complaint count, even though investment fraud causes the largest dollar losses overall. In other words — younger and middle-aged adults file the most reports, but older Americans lose the most money.
Why the numbers keep climbing
Cryptocurrency-enabled fraud is a major driver: the FBI logged more than 181,000 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2025, totaling over $11 billion in losses — over half of all reported losses came through crypto payment rails. Investment scams, business email compromise and tech support fraud round out the top categories by dollar amount. And for the first time, the FBI tracked AI-related fraud as its own category: 22,364 complaints and roughly $893 million in losses in the category's first full year — a sign that generative voice and chat tools are already being used at scale against US victims. See the detail in the AI & voice deepfakes report.
2026 outlook
Both agencies describe a market that keeps scaling rather than slowing: complaint volume to the FBI crossed one million for the first time in 2025, cryptocurrency-enabled fraud now accounts for the majority of dollar losses, and the newly tracked AI-related category suggests further growth as generative tools become cheaper and more convincing. Neither agency signals a plateau — the working assumption for 2026 is more reports, more dollars, and more automation on the criminal side.
Frequently asked questions
Who officially tracks fraud losses in the United States?
Two federal agencies publish the reference data: the FBI, through its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which released its 2025 annual report; and the FTC, whose Consumer Sentinel Network publishes an annual data book compiling millions of consumer fraud reports.
How much did Americans lose to fraud in 2025?
The FBI's IC3 recorded $20.877 billion in reported losses in 2025, across more than 1,008,597 complaints — the first time the count has topped one million, and a 26% increase in losses over 2024.
Are older Americans more affected than other age groups?
Yes, by a wide margin. Americans over 60 reported about $7.7 billion in losses in 2025, up 37% from 2024 — the highest of any age group, both in complaint volume and in dollars lost, driven mainly by investment fraud.