John Z Black
Brunswick, ME • (207) 245-1010 • contact@johnzblack.com
$20.88 billion. That’s what the FBI says Americans lost to cybercrime in 2025. The real number is higher because most victims never report.
Four years ago it was $6.9 billion. Now it’s tripled. Over one million complaints filed for the first time.
Where’d the money go? Crypto losses topped $11 billion. Investment fraud hit $8.6 billion on its own. BEC, the old reliable of corporate theft, pulled $2.9 billion. These aren’t exotic attacks. They’re confidence games on digital rails.
For the first time in IC3’s nearly 25-year history, AI-enabled fraud got its own category. The number: $893 million. That’s the floor, not the ceiling. Deepfake voice calls, synthetic identities, phishing that actually reads like a human wrote it. The tools are cheap and the results are convincing.
People over 60 lost $7.7 billion. Up 37% from last year. Call center scams targeting the elderly pulled $1.8 billion alone. Crypto ATM fraud hit $246 million. This isn’t about tech literacy. These are sophisticated, multi-stage social engineering operations that exploit trust, urgency, and isolation.
Healthcare took the ransomware crown for the second straight year with 268 complaints. Hospitals, clinics, insurance systems. Places where downtime means cancelled surgeries and rerouted ambulances.
The FBI’s Financial Fraud Kill Chain froze $679 million out of $1.16 billion targeted. Genuinely good work. But against $20.88 billion in total losses, we’re not keeping pace.
If you work in security, the healthcare ransomware trend needs your attention. If you have family over 60, have the conversation about crypto scams. Not a lecture. A conversation. Show them what the calls sound like.
Dig into the full loss breakdown, AI fraud baseline, and healthcare targeting trends