By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — People across the country reported losing almost $21 billion to cybercrimes last year, according to the FBI. Arizona ranked in the top 10 for scam losses.
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Arizonans filed more than 28,000 fraud reports with the Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025. That’s about 80 reports per day and a significant spike compared to previous years.
“When we look at the losses, it is even more catastrophic,” said Troy Cofer, FBI supervisory special agent. “More than $600 million lost in Arizona in 2025 that was reported, and so we know that number is even larger than that.”
Most costly scams target investments and technology
Cofer said the costliest scams are investment fraud, tech fraud, romance fraud and business email compromise fraud. Artificial intelligence is making the scams more realistic and challenging to fight.
“These organizations have essentially passed the cartels in their level of sophistication, their scale, and every single one of us out here that has a phone, has a computer, they’re coming for every single penny that you have, every single day,” said Bruce Van Baren, assistant U.S. attorney.
Losses by state:
- California $3,674,716,305
- Texas $1,825,636,181
- Florida $1,596,138,595
- New York $1,226,307,877
- New Jersey $660,411,901
- Arizona $630,700,609
- Pennsylvania $537,787,231
- Illinois $535,255,201
- Georgia $534,581,965
- Virginia $476,120,025
Van Baren said there is hope even after someone is caught up in a scam, but time is critical.
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“As soon as you realize you’re a victim, contact the financial institution, report your crime because what we can do is we can contact cryptocurrency exchanges, we can trace the funds, and we can alert them to the fraud where it can be frozen,” Van Baren said.
To avoid scams, be skeptical of unsolicited calls, emails and messages, and avoid clicking on links from unknown senders.
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