This list ranks the ten crime types with the highest losses in the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report, in the order the report’s loss table gives them. The figures are what victims reported to IC3 in 2025, not all crime. IC3 received 1,008,597 complaints and $20.877 billion in reported losses. Investment fraud is first, followed by business email compromise and tech support.
What does the IC3 2025 report actually count?
The FBI IC3 report is built from complaints that victims and others file with IC3. The report highlights four headline numbers: 1,008,597 complaints, $20.877 billion in losses, a 26% increase in losses from 2024, and a $20,699 average loss. For comparison, the IC3 2024 report counted 859,532 complaints and $16.6 billion in losses.
- 1,008,597Complaints filed with IC3 in 2025Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
- $20.877 billionLosses reported in 2025Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
- 26%Increase in losses from 2024Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
- $20,699Average lossSource: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report
Some limits come from the report’s own notes. Each complaint has only one crime type. Crime type and loss can change as investigations continue, and the statistics are an assessment at a point in time. Losses are de-duplicated as much as possible. So read the list below as a ranking of reported losses, not a measure of every crime that happened.
Which cybercrimes cost victims the most?
The IC3 table “By Complaint Loss” ranks crime types by dollars. These are the first ten rows as the report gives them, with the complaint count from the separate “By Complaint Count” table.
- Investment. $8,648,617,756 in losses, 72,984 complaints.
- Business Email Compromise. $3,046,598,558 in losses, 24,768 complaints.
- Tech/Customer Support. $2,134,675,818 in losses, 47,794 complaints.
- Personal Data Breach. $1,314,923,988 in losses, 67,456 complaints.
- Confidence/Romance. $929,287,469 in losses, 23,159 complaints.
- Government Impersonation. $797,943,193 in losses, 32,424 complaints.
- Other. $512,146,819 in losses, 20,031 complaints. This is a row in the report’s table.
- Non-Payment/Non-Delivery. $503,373,587 in losses, 56,478 complaints.
- Data Breach. $435,240,992 in losses, 3,963 complaints.
- Employment. $362,934,762 in losses, 24,688 complaints.
Are the most reported crimes also the costliest?
Not in this data. Phishing/Spoofing has the most complaints in the report, but its reported losses are far lower than investment fraud. If you want the basics of that first step in many attacks, see the phishing 101 guide.
| 2025 IC3 report | Most complaints | Most losses |
|---|---|---|
| Crime type | Phishing/Spoofing | Investment |
| Complaints | 191,561 | 72,984 |
| Reported losses | $215,843,126 | $8,648,617,756 |
Why is investment fraud first?
The report singles out cryptocurrency investment fraud. It says these scams are “largely perpetrated by organized criminal enterprises based in Southeast Asia” and that cryptocurrency investment fraud was the highest source of financial losses to Americans in 2025, with $7.2 billion reported. The FBI says victims are shown fake profits, then charged taxes and fees when they try to withdraw.
The report also says Operation Level Up, an FBI-led initiative against crypto investment scams, has reduced potential losses by more than $500 million since 2024. Separately, the cryptocurrency descriptor, which marks complaints that reference virtual currency, covers $11,366,669,732 in reported losses.
What about business email compromise, tech support and SIM swaps?
Business email compromise (BEC) is second on the loss table. The report says chat generators can create emails that mimic a company’s CEO, and that businesses reported losses over $30 million to BEC scams involving AI, while noting that not all BEC tactics are AI-enabled. For the leadership angle, see the executive cyber threat.
Tech/Customer Support is third, with 47,794 complaints. The report also gives account takeover (ATO) as approximately 4,700 complaints and $359.7 million in losses; our walk-through is in the account takeover lifecycle.
Lower on the table, SIM swapping shows 971 complaints and $17,366,758 in losses. Ransomware shows 3,611 complaints and $32,320,105. For ransomware the report warns that some entities report no loss amount, “thereby creating an artificially low overall ransomware loss rate.”
How much of the loss is cyber-enabled fraud?
The report defines cyber-enabled fraud as complaints where criminals use the Internet or other technology to commit fraudulent activities. It adds that this often involves the theft of money, data, identities, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services. In 2025 it counted 452,868 complaints and $17,697,074,980 in losses, which is 45% of complaints and 85% of losses. Readers who work on scams and impersonation can start from the fraud and brand protection page.
What questions does this ranking raise?
These are questions drawn from the stated figures, not advice from the report. The report says each complaint has one crime type. Does your own incident reporting also pick one label when an attack spans phishing and BEC? The report shows complaint counts and losses can rank very differently. Do you track both counts and losses for your own fraud cases, and do you compare them side by side? And since the figures reflect only what victims report, how many incidents at your company never reach a report?
To go further, read the ransomware variants reported to the FBI and AI cyber threats in 2026.