The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, released in 2026, recorded nearly $21 billion in reported losses from internet crime complaints in the United States.
The report is based on complaints received by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, so the figures should not be interpreted as a complete measurement of every cybercrime loss.
That limitation matters. Many victims never report what happened.
The report also highlighted the growing role of AI-related fraud, including scams involving fake profiles, voice cloning and synthetic media.
For readers, the most useful takeaway is not the headline number.
It is that digital fraud has become a major financial crime category, and criminals increasingly use technology to make old social-engineering techniques more convincing.
The best defence remains verification: do not send money because a message looks professional, sounds familiar or creates urgency.