Business Email Compromise Statistics 2026

BEC losses rose about 10% from 2024 to 2025, with 3,326 more complaints filed.

BEC losses were $2,770,151,146 in 2024 (21,442 complaints), $2,946,830,270 in 2023 (21,489) and $2,742,354,049 in 2022 (21,832).

People aged 60 and over filed 4,566 BEC complaints in 2025, reporting $568 million in losses.

1,008,597

The FBI received 1,008,597 cybercrime complaints in 2025, the first year above one million.

Total reported cybercrime losses reached $20.877 billion in 2025, up 26% from 2024.

Reported cybercrime losses were $16.6 billion in 2024, up from $12.5 billion in 2023.

Cyber-enabled fraud caused about 85% of 2025 losses: $17.7 billion across 452,868 complaints.

191,561

Phishing and spoofing was the most reported crime in 2025, with 191,561 complaints.

BEC is the number one way fraudsters attempt payments fraud.

Financial losses from fraud were reported by 48% of organizations with revenue under $1 billion and 66% of those above $1 billion.

83%; 55%

Treasury teams were most likely to discover attempted fraud (83%) and actual fraud (55%).

Vendor impersonation is rising while classic fake-executive BEC emails are declining.

Among BEC tactics in 2024, third-party impersonation was cited by 63% of respondents, vendor impersonation by 60% (up from 57%) and classic executive impersonation by 49%.

17%

Only 17% of organizations use AI to fight payments fraud.

In 2024, wire transfers were the payment method most targeted in BEC (63% of organizations hit by payments fraud), followed by ACH credits (50%) and ACH debits and checks (26% each).

72%; 68%

72% of organizations that use checks plan to keep using them; 68% of those cite vendor requirements.

841 financial institutions filed 15,417 reports of mail theft-related check fraud in six months of 2023, totaling more than $688 million in suspicious activity.

44%; 26%; 20%

In those reports, 44% involved stolen checks that were altered, 26% counterfeits made from stolen checks and 20% stolen checks that were fraudulently signed.

The average reported mail theft check fraud was $44,774, with a median of $14,215.

Over 680,000

FinCEN received over 680,000 check fraud reports in 2022, nearly double the year before.

23%

23% of organizations hit by payments fraud in 2024 experienced fraud from mail interference.

Credit card and check fraud complaints to the FBI reached 18,774 in 2025, with $282.7 million in losses.

For domestic transfers alone, the team handled 3,574 incidents with $833 million in losses and froze $507 million, a 61% recovery rate.

For critical infrastructure organizations, the team froze $147 million of $261 million in reported losses across 655 incidents, a 56% success rate.

In 2023 the Recovery Asset Team took on 3,008 incidents with $758.05 million in potential losses.

In 2022 the team took on 2,838 domestic BEC incidents with $590.62 million in losses and froze $433.30 million, a 73% success rate.

In 2024, 20% of organizations hit by payments fraud recovered none of the lost funds, while 22% recovered more than 75%.

The FBI says time is of the essence: contact your bank to request a recall immediately and file at ic3.gov, whatever the amount lost.

58%

BEC and funds transfer fraud made up 58% of cyber insurance claims in 2025.

52%

52% of funds transfer fraud claims started with a BEC.

BEC claims rose 15% in 2025, with an average loss of $27,000; funds transfer fraud claims averaged $141,000.

Businesses with over $100 million in revenue filed cyber claims at five times the rate of smaller ones.

Coalition recovered $21.8 million in stolen funds in 2025, averaging $202,000 per recovery, and says early reporting improves the odds.

Construction: The FBI warned that criminals impersonate construction companies, register lookalike domains, and email their clients new ACH or direct deposit instructions.

Construction: BEC actors use subscription construction databases to find companies that won bids, then register lookalike domains to redirect payments.

11.4%

Construction firms made up 11.4% of the BEC cases Arctic Wolf handled from October 2023 to September 2024.

Manufacturing and construction was the most targeted sector in bank BEC reports, rising from 20% of incidents in 2017 to 25% in 2018, with an average fraudulent transaction of $53,728 in 2017.

12.0%

Manufacturers made up 12.0% of Arctic Wolf's BEC cases.

Finance and insurance firms made up 26.5% of Arctic Wolf's BEC cases, about double second-place legal and government (13.3%); BEC was 53% of all incident response cases in that industry.

6%; 18%

Commercial services grew faster than any other sector, from 6% of BEC incidents in 2017 to 18% in 2018.

16%; 9%; half

Financial firms fell from 16% of BEC incidents in 2017 to 9% in 2018; criminals targeting financial firms impersonated the CEO in half of cases.

$1.9 million

Higher education: The FBI warned universities that large construction projects are easy BEC targets; Southern Oregon University sent $1.9 million to criminals posing as its contractor.

Healthcare: The FBI warned that criminals target healthcare payment processors; one hospital had $3.1 million in payments diverted, and at least 65 processors were hit between 2018 and 2019.

Top 2025 cybercrime losses by state: California $3.67 billion, Texas $1.83 billion, Florida $1.60 billion, New York $1.23 billion.

Adjusted for population, the District of Columbia had the highest losses ($14.0 million per 100,000 residents), followed by California and Nevada.

Around $50,000

The median amount taken in a BEC has settled around $50,000.

85%; 74%; 10%

85% of BEC cases Arctic Wolf investigated with a confirmed root cause began with email phishing, up from 74%; previously compromised credentials caused 10%.

30%; 39%

In bank BEC reports, fake vendor or client invoices grew from 30% to 39% of cases between 2017 and 2018 and became the most common method.

33%; 12%

CEO impersonation fell from 33% of BEC cases in 2017 to 12% in 2018.

BEC using fake vendor or client invoices averaged $125,439 per transaction, versus $50,373 for CEO impersonation, and made up 41% of all dollars targeted in 2017.

73%

73% of BEC incidents in 2017 sent money to US accounts, likely run by money mules.

AI-enabled email fraud losses could reach about $11.5 billion by 2027 if criminals adopt it aggressively.

2025 was the first year the FBI report covered AI-related crime: 22,364 complaints and $893 million in losses.

Businesses reported over $30 million in losses to BEC scams involving AI in 2025.

Monthly BEC reports from financial institutions grew from nearly 500 in 2016 to over 1,100 in 2018, and attempted theft from $110 million to $301 million a month.

US consumers reported about $16 billion in fraud losses in 2025, a record and about 25% above 2024.

Imposter scams cost US consumers $3.5 billion in 2025, nearly one in three fraud reports.

Consumers reported nearly $1 billion in losses to scammers impersonating businesses in 2025.