$3 Billion Lost to Fake Bosses and Fake Invoices: The Scams AI Made Cheaper

$3 Billion Lost to Fake Bosses and Fake Invoices: The Scams AI Made Cheaper

Summary: Victims reported losing $3,046,598,558 to business email compromise (fake boss, fake vendor and fake invoice emails) to the FBI in 2025. That is up about 10% from 2024. The FBI’s report also has a new section on fraud involving artificial intelligence (AI): 22,364 complaints mentioned AI, with $893 million in losses. Fake emails, cloned voices and fake video calls are now quicker and cheaper for criminals to make. The simplest defense still works: confirm every payment request by calling a number you already have.

Read this first: what the numbers do and don’t show

These figures come from reports that victims filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Many victims never report, so real losses are higher. The FBI only counts a complaint as AI-related when the complaint itself mentions AI. Most victims can’t tell whether a scammer used AI, so the AI figures are a floor, not a full count. This page covers the types of fraud AI makes easier. It does not claim that all of these losses were caused by AI.

The headline numbers (2025)

Measure20252024Source
Business email compromise losses$3,046,598,558$2,770,151,146FBI IC3 2025
Business email compromise complaints24,76821,442FBI IC3 2025
Average reported loss per business email compromise complaintAbout $123,000About $129,000Our math from FBI IC3 totals
Phishing/spoofing losses$215,843,126$70,013,036FBI IC3 2025
Phishing/spoofing complaints191,561193,407FBI IC3 2025
All complaints mentioning AI22,364 complaints, $893,346,472 lostNot reportedFBI IC3 2025
Business email compromise complaints mentioning AI135 complaints, $30,256,592 lostNot reportedFBI IC3 2025
Losses to business impersonators (consumer reports to FTC)Nearly $1 billion$866 millionFTC, June 2026
All imposter scam losses (FTC)$3.5 billion—FTC, June 2026

Two things stand out. Phishing complaints were flat, but reported phishing losses roughly tripled. And business email compromise was the second-costliest crime type the FBI tracked in 2025, behind only investment fraud ($8.65 billion).

How each scam works

1. The fake boss email

An email that looks like it’s from the owner or a manager asks an employee to send a wire, buy gift cards or change someone’s payroll deposit. It’s usually urgent and secret (“I’m in a meeting, just get this done”). The FBI says chat tools can now write official-sounding emails that copy a company’s CEO in seconds, with no spelling errors to give them away.

2. The fake vendor invoice

A scammer gets into a supplier’s email, or makes an address that is one letter off, and sends a real-looking invoice with “new” bank details. You pay the bill you expected to pay, but the money goes to the scammer. Real estate closings are hit the same way: the FBI’s report describes a fake “title company” email with wire instructions that led to a $6 million loss.

3. The cloned voice or fake video call

The FBI warns that criminals use short voice clips to impersonate people and use AI video for live calls with fake “company executives.” A cloned voice on the phone can back up a fake email, which beats the old advice of just “checking it sounds right.” FinCEN, the Treasury bureau that tracks financial crime, has also warned banks about deepfake photos and IDs used to open accounts and move stolen money.

4. Phishing that looks real

Phishing emails and texts try to get a password or a click. AI tools make it cheap to write thousands of different, clean messages aimed at specific people. A stolen email login is often the first step in the fake invoice scam above.

How to protect your business

  1. Call back on a number you already have. Never use the phone number or link in the message asking for money. Look up the person or vendor in your own records and call them.
  2. Require two people to approve payments. Set a dollar amount (for example, any wire, or anything over $1,000) where a second person must sign off.
  3. Treat any change to bank details as a red flag. Confirm new account numbers by phone before paying, every time, even for long-time vendors.
  4. Agree on a code word. The FBI suggests a secret word or phrase to confirm identity. Use one for any urgent money request from the owner.
  5. Slow down on urgent or secret requests. Pressure is the scam. A real boss can wait five minutes for a call-back.
  6. Turn on multi-factor login for email, banking and payroll, so a stolen password alone isn’t enough.
  7. Limit what you post. The FBI notes that public videos and voice recordings give scammers material to clone. Keep staff lists and who-approves-payments details off public pages.
  8. Ask your bank about payment controls, such as positive pay, call-back confirmation on wires and limits on new payees.

If you already sent money

  1. Call your bank right away and ask it to recall the payment. The FBI says time matters most. In 2025, its Recovery Asset Team froze $507 million in domestic cases and $172 million in international cases.
  2. File a complaint at ic3.gov with full transaction details, no matter the amount.
  3. Report impersonation to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
  4. Change passwords on the email account that was used, and warn your vendors and customers.

Frequently asked questions

How much did businesses lose to email scams in 2025?

Victims reported $3,046,598,558 in business email compromise losses to the FBI in 2025, across 24,768 complaints. Most victims don’t report, so the real total is higher.

How much fraud did AI cause in 2025?

No one knows the full amount. The FBI counted 22,364 complaints that mentioned AI, with $893 million in losses, including $30 million in business email compromise. Those counts only include victims who knew or suspected AI was used.

What’s the single best way to stop a fake invoice or fake boss scam?

Before any payment or bank change, call the person back on a number you already have on file, and require a second person to approve.

Sources

Last updated October 2026. Figures are reported losses, not verified totals.

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