Americans lost nearly $900 million to AI-powered scams, FBI says

The 2025 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Report shows that Americans reported $893,346,472 in AI‑related scam losses.

Those losses stem from 22,364 AI-related complaints. And these figures represent only the reported losses, which may well be the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

The main drivers behind the rise in AI-powered scams are voice cloning, deepfake images and videos, and AI‑generated scripts. These tools have supercharged classic fraud schemes such as romance scams, kidnapping and extortion calls, fake influencers, and government impersonation.

Michael Machtinger, deputy assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division, told the Wall Street Journal:

“AI-created fraudulent communications can look very official and very legitimate to even the most trained individuals.”

The FBI and financial institutions recommend verifying identities via official contact channels. One of their biggest concerns is government impersonation scams, which have evolved from crude IRS gift‑card phone calls into sophisticated, multi‑channel operations that combine spoofed caller ID, stolen agency logos, and AI‑generated audio and video of public officials.

This report, and others like it, shows how AI is being weaponized to automate research on victims, generate convincing scripts, and create highly believable deepfake personas at scale.

AI is also increasingly used in business email compromise (BEC), romance scams, and impersonation fraud. In BEC cases involving AI, losses have already reached tens of millions of dollars for businesses alone.

For a broader look at why AI is simultaneously fueling scams like these and becoming indispensable to defending against them, see my article AI: Threat, tool, or both?

It explains how both defenders and criminals use AI to find vulnerabilities, and why security vendors increasingly rely on AI to process vast amounts of telemetry, detect anomalies, and keep pace with threats that “no longer move at human speed.”

How to stay safe

Consumer protection agencies have documented a growing list of the ways scammers are using AI to try to rip people off. The main problem is that we can no longer take it at face value that the person we’re talking to is who they claim to be.

Government agencies and financial institutions recommend that you:

• Be skeptical of urgent payment demands, especially those involving cryptocurrency or gift cards
• Limit the amount of voice and video content you share publicly, as it can be reused by scammers
• Report incidents quickly to your bank(s) and IC3.gov

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard can help you determine whether a message is a scam and guide you through the next steps.

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