A sharp rise in digital fraud is reshaping the global threat landscape, with new data highlighting how advanced technologies are enabling cybercriminals to scale attacks faster and more effectively than ever before.
According to a recently released report, cybercrime losses reached $20.877 billion in 2025, marking a nearly 26% increase compared to 2024. The findings show that both cryptocurrency and generative AI are now central to how fraud is executed and monetised.
Cryptocurrency played a major role, not only driving investment fraud losses but also acting as a key method for laundering funds across multiple scam types. More than 180,000 fraud cases involved cryptocurrency transactions. In fact, it was the primary payment method in 2/3 of the top 5 fraud categories by financial loss, except for Business Email Compromise (BEC), which typically uses wire transfers.
Generative AI has also emerged as a growing threat. Fraudsters are using tools like voice cloning, deepfake videos, and realistic fake images to create highly convincing and personalised scams. Over 22,000 complaints in 2025 involved AI-enabled fraud techniques.
Older adults were particularly affected. Romance scams targeting this group increased by 30%, while phishing and spoofing incidents for individuals aged 60+ rose by over 100%. Government impersonation scams nearly doubled during the same period.
Phishing and spoofing remained the most common cybercrime, with 192,000 reported cases, more than double the number of extortion (89,129) and investment scam complaints (72,984). However, investment fraud caused the highest financial damage, totalling $8.65 billion, with $7.2 billion linked to cryptocurrency-based scams, reflecting a 25% rise from 2024. Complaints in this category also grew by 48%.
Other major threats included BEC ($3 billion), tech support scams ($2.1 billion), romance scams ($929 million), and government impersonation ($800 million). Overall, cyber-enabled fraud accounted for nearly 85% of all reported losses.
On a global level, fraudulent wire transfers were most commonly routed to Hong Kong, followed by Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and China.
The report also highlights risks to critical infrastructure, with the financial services sector now ranking as the 3rd most targeted industry. Ransomware and data breaches across 16 key sectors caused losses exceeding $261 billion.
Experts emphasise that while technology continues to evolve, awareness remains one of the strongest defences. Research shows that individuals familiar with scams are 80% less likely to engage and 40% less likely to fall victim.
The report concludes that cybercrime is not just increasing—it is becoming more complex, driven by the combined impact of AI, cryptocurrency, and advanced attack methods.
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