As I predicted, the topline figure in the recently published IC3 Annual Report 2025 is now over $20 billion. That is double the figure just three years ago. It makes for a truly troubling chart (see above).
This annual US government report is an analysis of losses from Internet crimes reported to the FBI's Internet Crime and Complaint Center (IC3). These losses are now running at 5X the level recorded in 2020, implying that efforts to reduce Internet crime are consistently falling short.
Follow this link to get the 2025 IC3 Annual Report, and all previous editions. They are the basis for the chart above, a chart that I have been curating and updating for over 20 years.
While there are some issues with using the IC3 numbers as crime metrics—they were not originally collected as an exercise in crime metrics—I am satisfied that over the years the IC3 report reflect real world trends in cybercrime's impact on victims, as measured by direct monetary loss (for more details, see this article: Advancing Accurate and Objective Cybercrime Metrics in the Journal of National Security Law & Policy).
For more on the history of these stats, see this extended article from last year. For more about the urgency of humans doing better at cybersecurity and cybercrime deterrence, consider what AI have to say:
- ChatGPT Says Cybercrime Is a Pervasive and Damaging Global Threat, Other AI Agree
- ChatGPT-5 on Cybercrime: An Open Letter to World Leaders
As for the impact of Internet crime on human health and wellbeing, consider these articles:
Some of these articles are on Riskopia, a Substack that I have been building. Feel free to subscribe — it is free and this content will remain free.
