How many people fall victim to online scams every day?

What is online fraud?

Online fraud includes investment scams, phishing, identity theft, business email compromise, and romance scams. The FBI's IC3 has published annual reports since 2000. In 2025: over 1 million complaints, losses exceeding $20.8 billion (+26% from 2024), the first time reported losses surpassed $20 billion. Globally it is far bigger: most victims never report. Global cyber fraud losses are estimated at $1-2 trillion per year.

Online fraud by the numbers

What this means for you

The FBI received over 880,000 complaints in 2023, but estimates suggest only 15% of fraud victims ever report it. That means the real number of people harmed each year could be in the tens of millions globally. If you have used the internet for more than a few years, you have almost certainly encountered a scam attempt without realising it.

The most dangerous scams today are not the obvious "Nigerian prince" emails. They are investment fraud (including crypto), impersonation scams (posing as government agencies or banks), and pig-butchering, long-term relationship-building before a financial "opportunity" is introduced. These are engineered to be convincing.

A practical rule: no legitimate organisation will ever urgently demand payment via gift card, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer. If you feel rushed to act on a financial decision you did not initiate: stop, verify independently, and do not use the contact details provided in the suspicious message.

Online scam victims vs. phishing emails, today

Billions of phishing emails go out each day, only a tiny fraction find a victim, but that fraction represents millions of real people harmed.

The anatomy of an online scam: how criminals find victims at scale

How online fraud has grown: 2016-2025

FBI IC3 complaint volumes have grown 188% since 2016, with losses hitting $16 billion in 2024. The shift to cryptocurrency-based fraud post-2019 dramatically increased per-victim losses.

Online fraud victims, growth comparison

Key turning points in online fraud

1. 2000FBI IC3 (then IFCC) established, first systematic US cybercrime reporting centre
2. 2015Business Email Compromise (BEC) emerges as major category; $246M in reported US losses
3. 2020COVID-19 drives 68% surge in IC3 complaints to 791,790; pandemic fraud dominates
4. 2022US reported losses exceed $10 billion for the first time, cryptocurrency investment scams lead
5. 2024$16 billion in reported US losses; investment fraud ($6.5B) and elder fraud ($4.8B) set records
6. 2025$20.8 billion in reported US losses, first time above $20B; AI-enabled fraud tracked for the first time; 1M+ complaints filed

Research findings on online fraud

How the number is calculated

The live rate uses a 4-step extrapolation from FBI IC3 2025 data. Step 1 (directly measured): 1 million+ US complaints filed, $20.8 billion in losses. Step 2 (assumed): reporting rate estimated at 10-15% from comparison of IC3 and FTC Consumer Sentinel data — meaning the true US victim count is approximately 7-10 million/year; uncertainty range ×2. Step 3 (assumed): global multiplier of ~8× applied based on Europol and UN cybercrime estimates for the ratio of global to US fraud victims — this is the most uncertain step; uncertainty range ×2-3×. Step 4: ÷ 31,557,600 seconds ≈ 3.5/sec (mid) or 1.8/sec (conservative). The counter uses the 3.5/sec mid-estimate. The FBI IC3 report is the most rigorous public dataset for US cybercrime, but the global extrapolation carries significant uncertainty.

Sources used: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Annual Reports 2000-2025 - FBI IC3 Internet Crime Report 2024 - GASA / Feedzai - Global State of Scams Report 2024 - FBI IC3 Internet Crime Report 2025 - APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report Q2 2025 (largest quarterly total since Q2 2023: 1,130,393 attacks; QR-code phishing targeting 1,642 brands) - APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report Q3 2025 - Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2025 (22,052 incidents, 12,195 confirmed breaches – record; 44% ransomware, 30% third-party involvement, released Apr 23 2025). Full methodology: methodology page.

Frequently asked questions

How many online scam complaints does the FBI receive per year?

The FBI IC3 received over 1 million complaints in 2025 with losses exceeding $20.8 billion, a 26% increase from 2024. This is the first time reported cybercrime losses surpassed $20 billion. Since 2000, IC3 has received over 9 million complaints totalling more than $95 billion in losses.

What are the most common online scams?

By complaint volume (2025): phishing/spoofing, extortion, and personal data breach. By financial loss: investment fraud ($8.6B), BEC ($3B+), and cryptocurrency investment scams ($7.2B). For the first time, the FBI also tracked AI-enabled fraud separately: 22,000 complaints, nearly $900 million in losses.

Who is most at risk from online scams?

People over 60 suffer the most total losses: $4.8 billion in 2024 and rising (FBI IC3). Adults 30-49 report the highest complaint volumes. Young adults increasingly fall victim to investment and cryptocurrency scams. AI-enabled fraud disproportionately affects all age groups due to its increasing sophistication.