Cybercrime continued to rise in 2025, with losses reaching billions in the United States, including Puerto Rico, according to a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to data from the latest Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report, losses in the United States totaled $20.8 billion, with nearly one million complaints filed. This represents an increase from the $16.6 billion and 859,532 complaints reported the previous year.
In Puerto Rico, 4,108 complaints were reported, almost double the 2,241 reported in 2024. However, economic losses exceeded $44.2 million, an amount lower than the $91.4 million reported in 2024.
“The IC3 is a complaint repository that gives us the opportunity to see patterns in order to apprehend criminals. If complaints are increasing, it means that more crimes are being reported, which helps us understand what is happening. If the number is decreasing, perhaps that information is not being included in the complaints, or perhaps we are targeting criminals and seeking that money to return it to the victims,” said Carlos R. Goris, special agent in charge of the Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to the report, the agency handled approximately 3,900 incidents nationwide through its Rapid Response Team (RAT), which resulted in $1.1639 billion in reported losses and resulted in the freezing of $679,013,183 (58%).
Among the most prevalent schemes, the “Advanced Fee” scam dominated, a fraud involving advance payments for nonexistent prizes or investments.
This was followed by “Business Email Compromise” (BEC) scams, in which attackers impersonate corporate emails to obtain fraudulent money transfers, and botnets, networks of infected computers used to carry out fraud.
“The biggest flaw in these crimes is human error. That’s the key to the criminal’s success,” said Goris, who has previously held multiple leadership positions in the FBI’s cybersecurity units.
The special agent explained that we sometimes click on links or information requests without first analyzing whether those requests are truly legitimate.
In fact, he explained that one of the main strategies being used is social engineering techniques, where criminals can obtain personal information piecemeal, such as calls in which they impersonate acquaintances, until they build a complete profile of the victim.
“They do their homework and are looking for the key information that will give them access to that account,” Goris mentioned.
For certified fraud examiner Eduardo González Green, the problem goes beyond individuals; sometimes these schemes are executed through corporate operating systems.
“It’s no longer just an issue limited to the information system; our dependence on it in a business is so great that it becomes a risk management issue, and even a governance issue,” he stated.
Among his recommendations, he mentioned the importance of conducting external and objective evaluations of information systems, noting that “we must challenge our information systems.”
Cryptocurrencies
On the other hand, cryptocurrency fraud accounts for one of the largest proportions within these schemes, generating 903 complaints and losses of $24.2 million on the Island.
“The problem is that there is no way to necessarily trace all cryptocurrency transactions,” González Green emphasized.
He explained that, unlike the traditional banking system, this ecosystem does not always have cooperation mechanisms between financial institutions or jurisdictions, which facilitates the movement and disappearance of funds without the possibility of effective tracking.
Rampant Fraud Against Seniors
According to the report, one of the populations most vulnerable to online fraud continues to be adults over 60 years of age, with more than $7 billion in losses across the United States.
“The main issue is that our grandparents are not necessarily as tech-savvy as young people, but they have greater financial resources. It is not the same to steal from a young person who does not have these resources as it is to steal from someone who does,” González Green said.
In Puerto Rico, cases targeting senior citizens reached 351 reported cases, with losses exceeding $8.1 million.
Attorney Eddie Olivera Robles, coordinator of the AARP Fraud Network, an organization representing senior citizens, stated that the increase in cyber fraud complaints against seniors is consistent with trends observed in recent years. However, he emphasized that the figures remain underreported.
He explained that some victims do not report the schemes, particularly those involving romance scams or financial exploitation, due to emotional ties with the fraudsters or fear of admitting they were deceived.
“It’s a crime of silence, and the victim is, to a certain extent, complicit by not reporting the crime,” he maintained, noting that the lack of reporting distorts the true magnitude of the problem.
At the U.S. level, the scams that resulted in the greatest losses among this population were investment scams, with $3.5 billion, followed by tech support scams, with $1 billion, and romance scams, with $584 million.
“People laugh a little when they hear about romance scams because they think it’s something for ‘freaks,’ someone looking for love online, but it’s not like that. In the case of older adults, it almost always starts because they feel lonely,” Olivera Robles mentioned.
In her opinion, family and community play a “fundamental” role in guiding and warning their loved ones about these types of scams to mitigate the impact.
Likewise, she warned about the increasing sophistication of fraud using artificial intelligence, including “deep fakes” and voice cloning, which allows scammers to impersonate people or simulate calls from banks and family members.
Recognizing that scams evolve rapidly and technology becomes a tool for both protection and deception, the sources interviewed agree that prevention and digital education will be crucial to containing this phenomenon, which has already become a structural threat.
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