{"id":12412,"date":"2026-04-08T05:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/fbi-says-online-fraud-cost-americans-21b-last-year-what-you-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T10:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:06:26","slug":"fbi-says-online-fraud-cost-americans-21b-last-year-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/fbi-says-online-fraud-cost-americans-21b-last-year-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI says online fraud cost Americans $21B last year &#8211; what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<\/figure>\n<p>The FBI says that a huge increase in scams has caused cybersecurity crimes to cost US victims an estimated $21 billion last year. The most common example was investment scams, with cryptocurrency fraud causing huge losses.<\/p>\n<p>This report covers AI-related scams for the first time. The agency says the use of voice cloning, fake documents, and immersive videos was responsible for the loss of \u00a3893m\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-1047178\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-sharp-rise-in-scams\">A huge increase in scams<\/h2>\n<p>These statistics were revealed in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Report 2025, published this week.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received a total of 1,008,597 complaints, an increase from 859,532 in 2024. [\u2026] IC3 has received approximately 453,000 online fraud complaints, with reported losses exceeding $17.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Investment fraud remains the leading cause, accounting for nearly 49% of all fraud-related losses. Americans who submitted complaints involving cryptocurrency reported the highest losses, with 181,565 complaints totaling more than $11 billion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>AI-powered fraud is a growing threat. It is now less common for fraudsters to create audio clips of a friend or family member&#8217;s voice, and fake videos are also on the rise.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For the first time in its nearly 25-year history, the IC3 report reveals the category of artificial intelligence, which accounts for 22,364 complaints, costing Americans approximately R893 million.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-protect-yourself-amp-your-family\">How to protect yourself and your family<\/h2>\n<p>One of the FBI&#8217;s main messages is that fraudsters often use tactics that create a sense of urgency. These include fraudulent work receipts that need to be disputed in a very short time, bank accounts that need to be &#8220;protected&#8221; by wire transfers, fines that need to be paid quickly to avoid arrest, and family members who are said to need immediate financial support in an emergency.<\/p>\n<p>This organization says that it is important to &#8220;breathe&#8221; when faced with a seemingly urgent situation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The FBI is urging everyone to &#8220;Take Action&#8221; to identify red flags of a potential scam. Resist the pressure to act quickly and check the situation before responding with money or personal information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Email addresses, social media profiles, phone calls, and video calls can all be spoofed these days. Always keep in touch with a family member or friend using a second method of texting, and it is recommended to agree on a password with your partner and other family members that you will use in a real emergency.<\/p>\n<p>If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from your bank&#8217;s fraud team or another card provider, always hang up and call them back at the phone number printed on the back of your card.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI has detailed information on 20 different categories of fraud on its website. Statistically, seniors are more likely to be victims of online fraud, so it&#8217;s worth taking the time to educate the seniors in your family.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: FBI<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"google-preferred-source-badge\">\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a favorite source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a favorite source on Google\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-disclaimer-container\">\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\"><em>FTC: We use auto affiliate links to earn income.<\/em> More.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1044137\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/03\/750x150-1.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"150\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FBI says that a huge increase in scams has caused cybersecurity crimes to cost US victims an estimated $21 billion last year. The most common example was investment scams, with cryptocurrency fraud causing huge losses. This report covers AI-related scams for the first time. The agency says the use of voice cloning, fake documents, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-smartphones-tablets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}