Crypto scams cost Americans an estimated $81B in 2025

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center released its 2025 report, and the numbers are not comfortable reading. Americans filed 181,565 complaints tied to crypto fraud last year, with total reported losses reaching $11.366 billion, a 22% jump from the prior year. Seniors are carrying the heaviest burden The demographic breakdown is where this story gets genuinely alarming. Americans aged 60 and older filed 44,555 of those complaints and reported $4.4 billion in combined losses, the highest of any age group tracked by the FBI. That is up sharply from roughly $2.8 billion in losses recorded for the same demographic in 2024. In a single year, losses among seniors grew by more than 57%. The mechanics are familiar: investment scams that promise outsized returns, impersonation schemes where fraudsters pose as government officials or tech support staff, and so-called “pig butchering” operations where victims are cultivated over weeks or months before being cleaned out. Older Americans are disproportionately targeted because they tend to hold more savings, are less familiar with how crypto transactions work, and are more likely to trust authority figures, real or fabricated. The $17 billi...