A significant shift in cybercrime trends has emerged, with artificial intelligence now playing a major role in online fraud. In its latest annual report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has, for the first time, included AI-assisted crimes, reporting losses of $893 million (A$1.42 billion) in 2025.
The agency revealed that over 22,000 complaints referenced AI, though it believes the actual numbers could be higher due to victims not recognising AI involvement. “AI-enabled synthetic content is becoming increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make,” the report stated.
Investment scams remain the biggest contributor to losses, reaching $8.6 billion, out of which $632 million was confirmed to involve AI. The report suggests many victims may not realise how AI is used in such frauds.
AI is also reshaping traditional scams. Business email compromise (BEC) attacks, powered by AI-generated emails and voice cloning, caused losses exceeding $30 million in 2025. Fraudsters are increasingly using AI chatbots to impersonate executives and authorise fake financial transactions.
Romance and confidence scams linked to AI resulted in losses of over $19 million, while “distress scams” using cloned voices of family members led to more than $5 million in losses. Cryptocurrency scams are also evolving, with over 7,600 complaints tied to AI-related activities.
The report highlights that AI is being used in job scams as well. Fraudsters are deploying AI-generated voice deepfakes during interviews to gain access to company systems.
Overall, cybercrime losses crossed $20 billion in 2025, the highest in the report’s 25-year history, with more than 1 million complaints filed. This marks a 26% increase from $16.6 billion in 2024.
Investment fraud alone surged by 89% over 2 years, with cryptocurrency scams accounting for $7.2 billion in losses. Many of these scams are run by organised criminal groups in Southeast Asia, often involving human trafficking victims as forced operators.
Victims are usually contacted through texts, social media, ads, or dating platforms, then moved to messaging apps where they are convinced to invest in fake platforms showing false profits. Withdrawal attempts often result in additional charges, before scammers disappear.
The FBI warned that such scams are “often devastating because they can leave victims with significant financial loss and emotional distress.”
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