I just read the latest FBI report on cybercrime for 2025, and there’s really a lot of interesting (and frightening) information. The numbers are simply shocking — losses increased by 26% to $20.8 billion. Over a million complaints were filed in a year, and that’s just from those who actually noticed they were scammed.

Cryptocurrencies remain the main channel for scammers. Nearly 182,000 complaints related to crypto, with total losses of $11.3 billion. That’s 54% of all losses. And the most sad part is that over 18,000 people lost $100,000 or more each.

But what really stands out is: the main victims are people over 60 years old. They filed over 200,000 complaints and lost $7.75 billion. In crypto scams, they suffer the most — 13.7 thousand cases, with losses of $2.76 billion. It’s clear why: new technologies, QR codes, crypto ATMs — it’s like they fell from the moon. Scammers understand this perfectly and target them deliberately.

Another painful point is the so-called recovery scams (scams involving fund recovery). The victim has already lost money, then a “helper” appears promising to return it. And people over 60 fall for this again — 2,500 cases, with losses exceeding $5.4 billion. So they are scammed twice.

Typical schemes include phishing, fake tech support, investment fraud, data leaks. The leading cause of losses is investment scams — $8.6 billion. Next are business email compromise (BEC) — $3 billion, and tech support — $2.1 billion.

And what’s truly alarming is that artificial intelligence makes cybercrimes more dangerous. 22,000 complaints with AI components, with losses of $893 million. Scammers use AI to create fake emails from leadership, clone voices ("help, it’s your grandson"), synthesize videos with celebrities who supposedly recommend investments. This turns fraud into an industrial scale — one criminal can deceive thousands of people.

The FBI is trying to do something — they froze $679 million in 2025, and conducted joint operations with India against call centers. But at this scale, it’s just a drop in the ocean.

The simple conclusion: cybercrimes are growing, methods are becoming more sophisticated, AI is changing the game, and elderly people are at particular risk. For the average person, this means one thing — you need to be very careful, learn to recognize fakes, not believe in quick investments and help from strangers. And most importantly — if you’ve already fallen for a scam, don’t trust any “refunds.” It’s a trap.