Screen & Scams
How many people fall victim to online scams every day?
US victims filed more than a million online fraud complaints in 2025, with losses above $20.8 billion, the first time past $20 billion and 26% more than a year before. And that is only what got reported: most victims never say a word, which is why global losses are put at $1 to 2 trillion a year. The term covers investment scams, phishing, identity theft, business email compromise and romance scams.
Roughly 3.5 victims every second.
Source: FBI IC3 Annual Report 2025; global scaling.
Last checked: 18 October 2026
What this means for you
The FBI received over 1 million complaints in 2025, 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 "Nigerian prince" email is not what fraud looks like anymore. Today it is 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.
The patterns are consistent enough to recognise: unexpected urgency, a financial request you did not initiate, and payment methods that are hard to reverse, gift cards, crypto, wire transfers. Legitimate organisations do not use any of them under time pressure.
Online fraud by the numbers
FBI IC3 2025: over 1 million complaints, losses exceeding $20.8 billion (+26% from 2024), the first year above $20 billion
FBI / IC3FBI IC3 2025: AI-enabled fraud tracked for the first time, with 22,000 complaints and nearly $900 million in losses
FBI / IC3Investment fraud (primarily crypto scams) caused $8.6 billion in losses in 2025; cryptocurrency investment scams alone: $7.2 billion
FBI / IC3Since IC3 was founded in 2000, over 9 million complaints have been received, totalling $95+ billion in losses
FBI / IC3Only an estimated 10-15% of cybercrime victims ever report to law enforcement
FBI / IC3GASA/Feedzai Global State of Scams Report 2025 (46,000 respondents, 42 markets): 57% of adults worldwide were targeted by a scam in the past year, 23% lost money, and global scam losses reached approximately $442 billion
Feedzai / GASAVerizon DBIR 2025: 22,052 security incidents and 12,195 confirmed data breaches analysed – the highest ever; ransomware in 44% of breaches (+37%); third-party involvement doubled to 30%; vulnerability exploitation as initial access +34%
VerizonAPWG Q2 2025: 1,130,393 phishing attacks – the largest quarterly total since Q2 2023; QR-code phishing targeted 1,642 brands; social media scams grew 51–843% quarter-to-quarter in 2025
APWGAPWG full-year 2025: 3.8 million phishing attacks total (+1% vs 3.76M in 2024); BEC wire-transfer attacks jumped 136% in Q4 2025; SMS phishing surged in H2
APWGOnline 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
Two decades of rising losses
The FBI's IC3 has tracked internet crime since 2000, providing a 25-year longitudinal dataset. Annual reported losses grew from hundreds of millions in the early 2000s to $20.8 billion in 2025, the first year above $20 billion. The trajectory steepened sharply after 2019, driven by the rise of cryptocurrency-enabled investment fraud ("pig butchering" scams), business email compromise, and sophisticated phishing operations run by organised crime groups in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and West Africa. COVID-19 dramatically accelerated the trend: IC3 received 69% more complaints in 2020 than 2019.
The tip of the iceberg
IC3 data represents roughly 10-15% of actual victimisation, based on comparisons with FTC Consumer Sentinel numbers. That puts the real US victim count at 7-10 million per year, not the 1 million who filed complaints. Globally, GASA and Feedzai's 2025 State of Scams Report surveyed 46,000 people across 42 markets and found 57% of adults were targeted in the past year; 23% lost money. Their estimated global losses: $442 billion. The $1-2 trillion figures cited elsewhere include fraud prevention costs, recovery expenses, and insurance claims.
How online fraud has grown: 2016-2025
FBI IC3 complaint volumes have grown 235% since 2016, with losses hitting $20.8 billion in 2025. The shift to cryptocurrency-based fraud post-2019 dramatically increased per-victim losses.
Online fraud victims, growth comparison
| Year | Rate | Est. per day | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1/sec | 86K | BEC scams emerge |
| 2020 | 3/sec | 242K | COVID fraud surge (+69% vs 2019) |
| 2022 | 3/sec | 242K | Crypto investment scams dominate; $10B losses first time |
| 2024 | 3/sec | 259K | AI-enabled fraud; pig-butchering scams |
| 2025 | 4/sec | 302K | First year above $20B; AI fraud tracked; BEC and crypto scams dominate |
| 2027 (forecast) | 5/sec | 389K | AI-generated deepfake audio/video scams proliferate |
Key turning points in online fraud
- 2000FBI IC3 (then IFCC) established, first systematic US cybercrime reporting centre
- 2015Business Email Compromise (BEC) emerges as major category; $246M in reported US losses
- 2020COVID-19 drives 69% surge in IC3 complaints to 791,790; pandemic fraud dominates
- 2022US reported losses exceed $10 billion for the first time, cryptocurrency investment scams lead
- 2024$16 billion in reported US losses; investment fraud ($6.5B) and elder fraud ($4.8B) set records
- 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
| Year | Finding | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | IC3 received 298,728 complaints; $1.33 billion in losses | 299K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2019 | IC3 received 467,361 complaints; $3.5 billion in losses | 467K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2020 | IC3 received 791,790 complaints (69% jump vs 2019); $4.2 billion in losses, COVID fraud surge | 792K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2021 | IC3 received 847,376 complaints; $6.9 billion in losses; ransomware complaints +62% | 847K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2022 | IC3 received 800,944 complaints; $10.3 billion in losses, first time exceeding $10B | 801K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2023 | IC3 received 880,418 complaints; $12.5 billion in losses | 880K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2024 | IC3 received 859,532 complaints; losses exceeding $16 billion (+33%); crypto investment scams $5.8B | 860K complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
| 2025 | IC3 received 1,000,000+ complaints; losses $20.8 billion (+26%); first time above $20B; AI-enabled fraud tracked separately for first time: 22,000 complaints, $900M losses; BEC: $3B+ | 1M complaints/year | FBI / IC3 |
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: $7.7 billion in 2025, up 37% from 2024 (FBI IC3). They also file the most complaints (201,266 in 2025). Young adults increasingly fall victim to investment and cryptocurrency scams. AI-enabled fraud disproportionately affects all age groups due to its increasing sophistication.
Cite this rate
AnythingCounter derived rate, last checked October 2026: about 3.5 victims per second (about 302,400 victims per day).
Method: Based on FBI / IC3 2025; APWG 2025; Verizon 2025, converted to a per-second rate (daily total ÷ 86,400).
Suggested citation: AnythingCounter, "Online scam victims," October 2026, https://anythingcounter.com/online-scam-victims-per-day
Primary source: FBI / IC3; APWG; Verizon.
How this number is calculated, and how much to trust it
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 ~11× 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: at the 10% end, 10 million × 11 = ~110 million global victims ÷ 31,557,600 seconds ≈ 3.5/sec; at the 15% end (~7 million × 11 = ~77 million) ≈ 2.4/sec. The counter uses 3.5/sec, the upper end of this range. The FBI IC3 report is the most rigorous public dataset for US cybercrime, but the global extrapolation carries significant uncertainty.
The FBI's IC3 has published annual Internet Crime Reports since 2000, making it the longest-running systematic dataset on US cybercrime. IC3 data feeds into federal prosecution statistics, FTC reporting, and Congressional oversight. The 10-15% reporting rate estimate comes from comparing IC3 complaint volumes against FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data, which captures a broader share of fraud incidents.
Sources: see below. More detail on our methodology page.
Sources
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). More detail on our methodology page.
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