Crypto scams cost Americans an estimated $80.7B in 2025, seven times the officially reported $11.4B figure due to underreporting.
Regulation & Gov ·
The Consumer Federation of America estimates that Americans lost $80.7 billion to crypto scams in 2025, applying a 7.1x multiplier to the $11.37 billion in losses officially reported to the FBI. Cryptocurrency represented more than half of all scam and cybercrime losses reported to law enforcement, marking a 22% increase from 2024. The multiplier accounts for chronic underreporting, based on a 2017 survey finding that only 14% of fraud victims file reports with authorities.
Investment fraud emerged as the largest category within crypto losses, with $8.6 billion reported and an estimated $61.4 billion true cost, up 32% year-over-year. Americans over 60 accounted for nearly 40% of crypto fraud losses alone, totaling $4.4 billion. The CFA's methodology, which the organization describes as conservative, scales all reported fraud figures by the same ratio and projects total annual online scam losses at $148.2 billion across all categories.
Enforcement actions have proceeded in parallel, ranging from victim outreach to asset seizure. The FBI's Operation Level Up reported notifying 8,000 people before payment and preventing $500 million in losses. However, the scope of international fraud networks and the role of platform advertising in enabling scams remain areas where accountability and prevention mechanisms remain contested.