Americans aged over 60 filed the highest number of complaints, with the average loss per person being $38,500.
By Catholics for Catholics
If you receive a contact via social media or email regarding business or romance, beware! It could be a cryptocurrency scam, said the FBI. The elderly are especially vulnerable.
The FBI released its 2025 Internet Crime Report, showing that Americans were being defrauded to the tune of nearly $21 billion, with artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency crimes behind some of the massive losses, according to a story by The Epoch Times.
“Americans who submitted complaints involving cryptocurrency reported the highest losses, with 181,565 complaints totaling more than $11 billion,” the agency said in an April 6 statement.
About 70 million American adults, around 30 percent of the country’s adult population, own a cryptocurrency, with one in three owners being between the ages of 30 and 44, according to Security.org.
Total losses of $20.87 billion in 2025 are more than 20 times higher than the $1 billion loss reported in 2015, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The number of complaints has also increased during this period, rising from 288,012 complaints to more than a million.
“For the first time in its nearly 25-year history, the IC3 report features a section on artificial intelligence, which accounts for 22,364 complaints, costing Americans nearly $893 million,” the report said.
The scammers rely on pressure techniques to defraud Americans, according to the FBI. The agency counseled people to assess the situation carefully before sending over money or personal information.
“IC3 receives nearly 3,000 complaints per day. If you believe you or someone you know may have been a victim of a fraud or scam, contact your local FBI office or submit a complaint at ic3.gov as soon as possible,” the FBI advised.
“You should document the name of the scammer/company, methods of contact, dates of contact, methods of payment, where funds have been sent, and a thorough description of the interactions.”
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