Investment Fraud Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-authors: Marcus Chen & Sarah Davis | Last updated: July 17, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Investment fraud is the dominant US fraud category by financial loss, generating $8.648 billion in FBI IC3 losses in 2025 — more than double the second-place category (Business Email Compromise at $3.047 billion). Cryptocurrency investment fraud drove $7.228 billion of that total. The SEC filed 456 enforcement actions in FY2025 and obtained $17.9 billion in monetary relief orders, with offering fraud comprising nearly one third of all standalone actions. In the UK, investment fraud losses reached £879.8 million, up 31% from 2024. Adults aged 40–59 collectively lost more to crypto investment fraud in 2025 than the FBI’s entire investment fraud total recorded in 2020. For the full US fraud category breakdown across all crime types, see online fraud statistics.
Quick Answer
Investment fraud is the dominant US fraud category by financial loss, generating $8.648 billion in FBI IC3 losses in 2025 — more than double the second-place category (Business Email Compromise at $3.047 billion). Cryptocurrency investment fraud drove $7.228 billion of that total. The SEC filed 456 enforcement actions in FY2025 and obtained $17.9 billion in monetary relief orders, with offering fraud comprising nearly one third of all standalone actions. In the UK, investment fraud losses reached £879.8 million, up 31% from 2024. Adults aged 40–59 collectively lost more to crypto investment fraud in 2025 than the FBI’s entire investment fraud total recorded in 2020.
Key Findings
- According to Axis Intelligence Research’s cross-source analysis, investment fraud losses tracked by the FBI IC3 in 2025 ($8.648 billion) equal approximately 48 times the total investment fraud losses the FBI recorded in 2015 ($179 million) — a 4,730% increase in a single decade, driven almost entirely by cryptocurrency pig butchering operations.
- Pig butchering complaint volume grew 8,500% between 2020 and 2024, per Chainalysis blockchain data, and the FBI logged a 48% year-over-year increase in crypto investment fraud complaints in 2025 alone — confirming that the rate of victim acquisition is still accelerating, not stabilizing.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, the SEC’s FY2025 enforcement results reveal a structural shift: offering fraud and insider trading comprised nearly one third of all enforcement actions in FY2025 (up from 26% in FY2024), while total case count fell 22% — the SEC is bringing fewer but higher-impact investment fraud cases.
- The UK lost £879.8 million to investment fraud in 2025 — equivalent to £2.4 million per day — with 34,673 reports to the national reporting service, a 31% YoY increase. Per the City of London Police, the average victim lost £25,612, typically representing pension savings or long-term investments.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research’s Fraud Recovery Gap Index™, the FBI’s Operation Level Up prevented an estimated $225.9 million in pig butchering losses in 2025 — but that represents less than 3.2% of the $7.228 billion in crypto investment fraud losses that were not intercepted. The recovery infrastructure, while improving, covers a small fraction of the actual harm.
The Axis Intelligence Fraud Recovery Gap Index™ (RGI™)
Original cross-source metric — not published by any government agency
Axis Intelligence Research created the Fraud Recovery Gap Index (RGI™) to quantify what percentage of investment fraud losses are actually recovered or prevented through federal intervention — and more usefully, to size the gap that is not.
Formula: RGI = (FFKC_Frozen + OpLevelUp_Savings + SEC_Disgorgement_Cash) ÷ FBI_IC3_Investment_Fraud_Losses × 100
Inputs (all from primary sources, 2025):
- FFKC funds frozen (investment-related portion): approximately $250 million (Axis Intelligence Research estimate: 37% of total $679M frozen, proportional to investment fraud’s 41% share of IC3 losses)
- Operation Level Up estimated savings: $225.9 million (FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report)
- SEC disgorgement cash returned to investors: $262 million (SEC FY2025 press release)
- FBI IC3 investment fraud losses: $8.648 billion
RGI calculation: ($250M + $225.9M + $262M) ÷ $8,648M × 100 = 8.5%
According to Axis Intelligence Research, federal intervention — across the FBI’s FFKC, Operation Level Up, and SEC disgorgement — recovered or prevented approximately 8.5% of reported US investment fraud losses in 2025. The remaining 91.5% — roughly $7.9 billion — represents permanent victim losses with no government recovery mechanism that reached them.
Limitations: The FFKC component is an Axis Intelligence Research proportional estimate; the FBI does not publish investment fraud-specific FFKC figures. The SEC disgorgement figure reflects orders issued, not cash received by victims; actual disbursements are lower and typically occur over multi-year periods. The RGI is a directional metric, not an audited total. Treat as order-of-magnitude analysis.
How Much Is Lost to Investment Fraud Each Year?
United States
Investment fraud has been the highest-loss category in the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center for four consecutive years. In 2025, the pattern intensified.
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | YoY 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total IC3 investment fraud losses | $8.648 billion | $6.572 billion | $4.574 billion | +31.6% |
| Crypto investment fraud losses | $7.228 billion | $5.803 billion | $3.944 billion | +24.6% |
| Total investment fraud complaints | 72,984 | 48,117 | 39,570 | +51.7% |
| Crypto investment fraud complaints | 61,559 | 41,585 | 29,382 | +48.0% |
| Investment fraud share of IC3 losses | 41.4% | 39.6% | 36.5% | +1.8pp |
Source: FBI IC3 Annual Reports 2023–2025 (primary).
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the 4,730% growth in FBI-tracked investment fraud losses from 2015 ($179 million) to 2025 ($8.648 billion) exceeds the growth rate of every other fraud category tracked by the IC3 over the same period — including the already-alarming trajectory documented in cybercrime statistics — and represents the single largest structural change in US consumer financial crime in the past decade. Cryptocurrency is the enabling mechanism: before crypto platforms existed, investment fraudsters needed bank accounts that could be traced and frozen. Crypto’s near-instant settlement and pseudonymous transfer architecture removed the primary law enforcement intervention window.
United Kingdom
The City of London Police, the UK’s National Lead Force for Fraud, published 2025 investment fraud data in April 2026. Criminals stole £879.8 million through investment fraud in 2025 — an average of £2.4 million per day, or £1,675 per minute.
| UK Investment Fraud Metric | 2025 | 2024 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total reported losses | £879.8 million | £671.6 million (est.) | +31% |
| Reports filed | 34,673 | ~26,500 | +31% |
| Average loss per victim | £25,612 | — | — |
| Daily loss rate | £2.4 million | — | — |
Source: City of London Police, press release April 7, 2026 (primary). 2024 estimate derived from 31% YoY growth rate applied to 2025 figure.
The City of London Police noted that reports spike in March, July, and September — when investors review accounts, move money into new products, or check returns ahead of the UK financial year-end. For thousands of victims, it is only at the moment of attempted withdrawal that the fraud becomes apparent; the investment never existed.
Marcus Chen notes: the UK’s average loss of £25,612 per victim versus the US average of $117,421 per crypto investment fraud complaint reflects a different fraud mix rather than different targeting intensity. The US IC3 crypto figure captures predominantly pig butchering, a high-average-loss typology. The UK figure includes a broader range of investment fraud types — fake trading platforms, clone firm fraud, mini-bond scams — that reduce the per-victim average while still producing an enormous aggregate.
What Types of Investment Fraud Cause the Most Harm?
Cryptocurrency Pig Butchering — The Dominant Loss Driver
Pig butchering (shā zhū pán) is a long-duration, script-driven investment fraud originating in China around 2019 and now operated primarily from forced-labor compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. The name derives from the practice of “fattening” the victim — building trust and engineering small fabricated gains — before the final extraction.
The operational playbook is documented:
- Initial contact via dating apps, social media, or misdirected text messages (“wrong number” opener). Contact is sustained for weeks or months before any financial topic is raised.
- Relationship cultivation through daily communication, fabricated personal backstory, and emotional intimacy construction — often using AI chatbots to manage thousands of simultaneous relationships.
- Platform introduction: the scammer mentions their own investment success, eventually directing the victim to a fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platform. These platforms display fabricated gains and allow small initial withdrawals to build confidence.
- Escalation: victims are encouraged to invest more, often involving borrowed funds, retirement savings, and home equity. Fabricated trading losses may be introduced to pressure additional “deposits” to “recover” losses.
- Final extraction: when the victim’s accessible funds are exhausted, the platform freezes withdrawals, citing taxes, fees, or regulatory holds. The platform disappears. All funds are gone.
| Pig Butchering / Crypto Investment Fraud Indicators | 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US crypto investment fraud losses (IC3) | $7.228 billion | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
| US crypto investment fraud complaints | 61,559 | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
| YoY complaint growth | +48% | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
| Average US victim loss | $117,421 | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| Chainalysis pig butchering growth 2020–2024 | +8,500% | Chainalysis 2024 Crypto Crime Report |
| Operation Level Up victims notified before final transfer | 3,780 | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
| Share of Op. Level Up victims unaware they were being scammed | 78% | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
| Estimated losses prevented by Op. Level Up | $225.9 million | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report |
Sources: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report (primary); Chainalysis 2024 Crypto Crime Report.
The figure that most clearly illustrates pig butchering’s sophistication: 78% of victims identified by Operation Level Up — an FBI program that contacts victims before their final transfer — were unaware they were being scammed at the time of FBI contact. This is not a crime of naivety. It is a crime of manufactured trust, engineered over weeks or months by trained operators following a documented script.
Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes
Ponzi schemes — in which returns to existing investors are paid from new investor capital rather than from legitimate investment returns — remain a persistent investment fraud category that the SEC tracks as a priority.
Major 2025 SEC-charged Ponzi cases per the FY2025 enforcement results:
- Paramount Management Group / Heller — $400 million Ponzi scheme, approximately 2,700 investors, many retail
- First Liberty Building & Loan / Frost — $140 million Ponzi scheme, approximately 300 investors
- Nightingale Properties / Schwartz — $60 million raised, $52 million misappropriated, approximately 700 retail investors
In September 2025, a $770 million Ponzi scheme targeting Amish and Mennonite investors in Pennsylvania was uncovered — one of the largest affinity fraud cases in US history by dollar amount.
The SEC has tracked Ponzi scheme collapses since 2013 in its annual enforcement data. The largest Ponzi scheme in US history remains the Bernie Madoff operation, which the SEC values at approximately $65 billion in investor losses — a figure that the SEC’s FY2025 enforcement results note partially inflated the 2025 monetary relief total due to ongoing long-running litigation against Robert Allen Stanford and co-defendants in an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.
Affinity Fraud
Affinity fraud is investment fraud that exploits shared group identity — religious, ethnic, professional, or cultural — to establish trust before executing a Ponzi, pyramid, or offering fraud scheme.
The SEC maintains a dedicated affinity fraud enforcement database tracking charged cases. Communities targeted in SEC-charged cases from 2023–2025 include: African-American, Filipino-American, Nigerian-American, Haitian-American, Tongan American, Latino (the $300 million CryptoFX Ponzi), Muslim investors, Amish and Mennonite, military veterans, and religious congregations.
According to Axis Intelligence Research, affinity fraud cases share a structural feature that amplifies harm: the social pressure within tight-knit communities to not report a fraud that was perpetrated by a trusted member creates systematic underreporting. The true aggregate losses to affinity fraud are unknowable — only the subset of cases that reach SEC or FBI investigation appears in official statistics.
Advance Fee Fraud and “Recovery” Scams
Advance fee investment fraud — in which victims pay upfront fees to access promised investment returns that never materialize — generated losses across multiple FBI IC3 categories in 2025. The most significant variant is the recovery scam: after a pig butchering victim has lost their primary investment, a second wave of criminals approaches with offers to recover lost funds for a fee or “taxes.”
In 2025, 10,516 recovery scam complaints generated $1.4 billion in additional losses — meaning victims who had already lost to investment fraud lost an additional $1.4 billion trying to get their money back. Adults 60 and older lost $540 million to recovery scams in 2025.
Who Are the Victims of Investment Fraud?
The demographic distribution of investment fraud losses undermines the common assumption that victims are primarily older or financially unsophisticated.
Age Distribution — Crypto Investment Fraud
| Age Group | Complaints | Losses | Average Loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 629 | $12.6 million | $20,031 |
| 20–29 | 4,627 | $117.4 million | $25,376 |
| 30–39 | 8,576 | $412.6 million | $48,112 |
| 40–49 | 10,750 | $924.6 million | $86,009 |
| 50–59 | 9,856 | $1.383 billion | $140,315 |
| 60+ | 13,685 | $2.764 billion | $201,973 |
Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report, p. 53 (primary). Average loss calculations: Axis Intelligence Research.
According to Axis Intelligence Research, adults aged 40–59 collectively lost $2.307 billion in crypto investment fraud in 2025 — exceeding the FBI’s entire investment fraud loss total from 2020. This is the cohort with the largest combination of accumulated financial assets (retirement accounts, home equity, peak earning years) and active digital platform engagement. The per-complaint average loss rises monotonically with age: from $20,031 for victims under 20 to $201,973 for victims 60+, a ten-fold difference.
The age pattern, properly understood: younger adults encounter more pig butchering attempts but have less capital to extract. Older adults encounter fewer attempts but the average extraction is far higher — because the available capital is.
The Educated Victim Profile
The common narrative that investment fraud victims are financially naive contradicts the documented profile. Chainalysis and independent researchers consistently find that pig butchering victims skew toward higher education levels and above-average financial literacy. The mechanism is social engineering, not financial illiteracy: the fraud begins with emotional intimacy and manufactured trust. By the time the investment platform is introduced, the victim’s critical faculties are filtered through a fabricated relationship. 78% of victims contacted by the FBI’s Operation Level Up were unaware they were being scammed — which is the single most important data point for understanding why standard fraud awareness campaigns have limited effect against pig butchering.
SEC Investment Fraud Enforcement — FY2025
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced FY2025 enforcement results on April 7, 2026, covering the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025.
| SEC Enforcement Metric | FY2025 | FY2024 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total enforcement actions | 456 | 584 | −22% |
| Standalone actions | 303 | 431 | −30% |
| Offering fraud / insider trading share of standalone actions | ~33% | 26% | +7pp |
| Total monetary relief orders | $17.9 billion | — | — |
| Disgorgement + prejudgment interest | $10.8 billion | — | — |
| Civil penalties | $7.2 billion | — | — |
| Cash returned to investors | $262 million | $344 million | −24% |
| Whistleblower awards | ~$60 million (48 individuals) | — | — |
| Tips, complaints, referrals received | 53,753 | 45,150 | +19% (record) |
Source: SEC FY2025 Enforcement Results, April 7, 2026 (sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026-34) (primary).
The $17.9 billion headline total requires significant context. After excluding amounts “deemed satisfied” by parallel criminal proceedings (restitution and forfeiture orders) and the long-running judgments in the $8 billion Stanford Ponzi case, the actual monetary relief obtained in FY2025 was $1.4 billion in disgorgement and $1.3 billion in civil penalties. The gap between $17.9 billion and $2.7 billion reflects the reality that most SEC monetary relief orders — particularly in large Ponzi cases — are orders against judgment-proof defendants.
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the 22% decline in total SEC enforcement actions and 30% decline in standalone actions from FY2024 to FY2025 reflects the SEC’s deliberate pivot under Chairman Paul Atkins: away from high-volume technical violation enforcement (off-channel communications, novel legal theories) toward fraud-focused cases requiring longer development time. The enforcement actions that were brought were more concentrated in offering fraud — the category that directly harms individual investors. Record whistleblower tip volume (53,753 — 19% above FY2024) confirms that investor fraud reporting has not declined; SEC prioritization has simply shifted.
Notable SEC Investment Fraud Actions in FY2025
The SEC’s FY2025 press release highlights specific cases that define the enforcement posture:
Ponzi schemes targeting retail investors: Paramount Management Group / Heller ($400M, 2,700 victims); First Liberty Building & Loan ($140M, 300 investors); Nightingale Properties ($60M, 700 investors). All three share the same structural feature: retail investors, many without prior investing experience, persuaded by fabricated track records.
AI misrepresentation fraud: The founder of Nate, Inc. was charged with raising over $42 million by making false and misleading statements about the company’s AI technology. The SEC’s newly formed Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit is explicitly mandated to pursue fraud involving AI misrepresentation — a category expected to grow materially through 2026–2027 as AI investment hype continues.
Crypto offering fraud: PGI Global / Palafox ($198 million crypto and FX fraud scheme); Unicoin (four executives charged with misleading statements in crypto asset offering).
Cross-border manipulation: In September 2025, the SEC formed the Cross-Border Task Force to address fraud from foreign-based actors targeting US investors — a direct institutional response to the pig butchering operations in Southeast Asia and the pump-and-dump schemes orchestrated from abroad.
How Investment Fraud Money Moves — and Why It’s Rarely Recovered
Understanding investment fraud recovery requires understanding the transaction architecture. The FBI’s IC3 data on payment method distribution shows that crypto dominates investment fraud (the opposite of BEC, where wire transfer dominates).
Once a victim transfers cryptocurrency to a pig butchering platform, the funds enter a laundering chain that typically involves:
- Layer 1 — Transfer from victim’s legitimate exchange (Coinbase, Kraken) to fraudulent platform wallet
- Layer 2 — Rapid movement to mixer or chain-hopping protocol to break transaction trail
- Layer 3 — Conversion to stablecoins (USDT, USDC) via decentralized exchange
- Layer 4 — OTC desk conversion to fiat in jurisdictions with weak AML enforcement (Cambodia, Myanmar, Dubai)
- Layer 5 — Fiat funds distributed to compound operators and their financiers
The FBI’s FFKC — which operates by freezing fraudulent wire transfers at domestic banks before they clear — has essentially no intervention capability past Layer 1. Once cryptocurrency leaves the victim’s legitimate exchange account, the window closes within minutes.
This is why Operation Level Up, which intercepts at Layer 0 (before the victim completes the final transfer), is the most effective individual-case intervention in the FBI’s arsenal. The $225.9 million in FY2025 prevented losses represents a genuine counterfactual: money that would have been transferred and lost permanently if the FBI had not contacted those specific victims.
| Recovery Mechanism | 2025 Impact | Intervention Point | Structural Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| FFKC (financial fraud kill chain) | ~$250M est. (investment portion) | At domestic bank wire | Zero effectiveness post-crypto conversion |
| Operation Level Up | $225.9M prevented | Before victim’s final transfer | Requires prior identification of victim relationship |
| SEC disgorgement cash | $262M returned | Post-enforcement, years later | Defendants frequently judgment-proof |
| DOJ Criminal Division seizures | $580M+ (pig butchering, Feb. 2026) | Compound-level asset seizure | Requires cross-border cooperation; rare |
Sources: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report (FFKC, Op. Level Up); SEC FY2025 press release (disgorgement); DOJ press release February 2026 (Strike Force seizures). FFKC investment proportion: Axis Intelligence Research estimate.
Investment Fraud by Type — The Frequency vs. Severity Gap
Not all investment fraud categories produce equal financial harm per victim. The FBI’s IC3 data, combined with SEC enforcement patterns, reveals a clear hierarchy.
| Type | Dominant Feature | FBI / SEC Data |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto pig butchering | Highest per-victim losses; $117,421 average (US) | $7.228B FBI IC3 2025 |
| Ponzi schemes | Large aggregate, slow-developing; discovered late | $17.9B SEC orders FY2025 (includes historical) |
| Advance fee / recovery scam | Secondary victimization; $133,112 avg per recovery scam complaint | $1.4B FBI IC3 2025 (recovery scams) |
| Affinity fraud | Community-specific targeting; massive underreporting | SEC database — no aggregate 2025 figure |
| Market manipulation (pump & dump) | Short-duration; lower per-victim harm | SEC FY2025: multiple cases, $234K+ illicit gains example |
| AI / technology misrepresentation | Emerging SEC priority; $42M+ per charged case | SEC Cyber & Emerging Tech Unit FY2025 |
Source: FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report (primary); SEC FY2025 Enforcement Results (primary). For phishing statistics — the highest-volume but lowest-loss-per-incident fraud type — see the dedicated Axis Intelligence page. Table analysis: Axis Intelligence Research.
Methodology
Data collection. All figures sourced from primary documents fetched during the July 17, 2026 production session:
- FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report (ic3.gov) — published April 7, 2026; all IC3 loss and complaint figures.
- SEC FY2025 Enforcement Results (sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026-34) — published April 7, 2026; all SEC enforcement figures.
- City of London Police investment fraud press release (cityoflondon.police.uk) — published April 7, 2026; UK investment fraud figures.
- Chainalysis 2024 Crypto Crime Report — pig butchering 8,500% growth figure; used for trend context only, not US loss estimates.
What we measure. Reported losses to official filing systems, or primary agency publications where stated. SEC monetary relief figures reflect orders issued, not cash received by victims. This article covers investment fraud specifically; for parallel FBI IC3 categories including ransomware statistics and BEC, see the dedicated Axis Intelligence pages.
Original calculations. The Fraud Recovery Gap Index™, the per-complaint average loss by age group, the 4,730% 10-year growth calculation, and the investment fraud share of IC3 losses are Axis Intelligence Research derivations using disclosed arithmetic from primary source data.
Limitations. IC3 figures represent self-reported losses from complaints only; the true investment fraud loss is materially higher (estimated 4.8% reporting rate for mass-market fraud). The RGI™ FFKC component is a proportional estimate; the FBI does not publish investment-fraud-specific FFKC breakdowns. SEC disgorgement figures reflect court orders, not cash disbursed; actual investor recovery is a fraction of ordered amounts and typically occurs over years. UK City of London Police figures reflect reports to the national fraud reporting service; underreporting of investment fraud in the UK is estimated at comparable rates to the US.
About This Dataset
Title: Investment Fraud Statistics 2026 — Axis Intelligence Research Dataset Coverage: US investment fraud data 2020–2025 (FBI IC3); UK investment fraud 2025 (City of London Police); SEC enforcement FY2025; pig butchering global scale (Chainalysis/Griffin & Mei) Derived metrics: Fraud Recovery Gap Index™ (RGI™); per-complaint average loss by age; 10-year growth rate; investment fraud share of IC3; RGI component calculations License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Citation format:
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Chen, M. (2026, July 17). Investment Fraud Statistics 2026. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/investment-fraud-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research and Marcus Chen. “Investment Fraud Statistics 2026.” Axis Intelligence, 17 July 2026, axis-intelligence.com/investment-fraud-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Marcus Chen. “Investment Fraud Statistics 2026.” Axis Intelligence. July 17, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/investment-fraud-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money is lost to investment fraud each year in the US?
In 2025, Americans reported $8.648 billion in investment fraud losses to the FBI’s IC3 — the highest annual total for this category in FBI history and the fourth consecutive year as the top-loss fraud category. Cryptocurrency investment fraud drove $7.228 billion of that total. The true figure, accounting for fraud that goes unreported, is substantially higher.
What is pig butchering and how prevalent is it?
Pig butchering (shā zhū pán) is a cryptocurrency investment fraud in which criminals build fabricated emotional relationships with victims over weeks or months before directing them to fraudulent trading platforms. The fraud originated in China around 2019 and is now predominantly operated from forced-labor compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Complaint volume grew 8,500% from 2020 to 2024 per Chainalysis, and the FBI logged a 48% year-over-year increase in crypto investment fraud complaints in 2025. The average US victim lost $117,421.
Who is most at risk of investment fraud?
Every adult with investable assets is at risk, but the financial harm concentrates in older adults: Americans 60 and older averaged $201,973 in crypto investment fraud losses per complaint in 2025, and collectively accounted for $2.764 billion in crypto investment fraud losses. Adults 40–59 lost $2.307 billion collectively — more than the FBI’s entire investment fraud total from 2020. The fraud does not primarily target the financially unsophisticated; 78% of pig butchering victims contacted by the FBI’s Operation Level Up were unaware they were being scammed.
What is the Fraud Recovery Gap Index™?
The RGI™ is an original Axis Intelligence Research metric that calculates the percentage of reported US investment fraud losses that federal intervention actually reaches through the FBI’s FFKC, Operation Level Up, and SEC disgorgement. In 2025, the combined federal recovery and prevention mechanisms covered approximately 8.5% of reported investment fraud losses — meaning roughly 91.5% ($7.9 billion) represents unrecovered permanent losses.
How does the SEC enforce investment fraud laws?
The SEC filed 456 enforcement actions in FY2025, with offering fraud and insider trading comprising nearly one third of standalone cases — up from 26% the prior year. The SEC obtained $17.9 billion in total monetary relief orders (including $10.8 billion in disgorgement), but $262 million in cash was actually returned to investors — reflecting the reality that most large Ponzi scheme defendants are judgment-proof. The SEC formed a Cross-Border Task Force in September 2025 specifically to address transnational investment fraud targeting US investors, including pig butchering networks in Southeast Asia.
How does investment fraud in the UK compare to the US?
In 2025, the UK lost £879.8 million to investment fraud — an average of £2.4 million per day — with 34,673 reports representing a 31% year-over-year increase. The average UK victim lost £25,612 (approximately $32,500 USD), compared to the US crypto investment fraud average of $117,421. The lower UK average reflects a different fraud type mix: the UK figure includes a broader range of investment fraud typologies including clone firm fraud and mini-bond scams alongside pig butchering, diluting the per-victim average while producing a substantial national aggregate.
What happens to investment fraud money after it’s transferred?
Cryptocurrency investment fraud funds typically move through a five-layer laundering chain: from the victim’s legitimate exchange to the fraudulent platform wallet, then to mixers or chain-hopping protocols, then to stablecoins via decentralized exchanges, then to OTC desks for fiat conversion in jurisdictions with weak AML enforcement, and finally to compound operators. This architecture means that law enforcement intervention is only viable at Layer 0 (before the victim transfers) or Layer 5 (compound-level seizure requiring cross-border cooperation). The FBI’s FFKC — which works at the domestic bank wire level — has essentially no effectiveness once funds enter the crypto chain.
Is investment fraud getting worse?
Yes, significantly. The FBI’s IC3 tracked a 4,730% increase in investment fraud losses from 2015 to 2025. Complaint volume grew 52% year-over-year in 2025 alone. The UK reported a 31% increase in investment fraud reports in 2025. Chainalysis documented 8,500% growth in pig butchering blockchain activity from 2020 to 2024. AI is accelerating the fraud: the FBI documented AI-attributed investment fraud losses of $632 million in 2025 — its first year tracking AI as a fraud descriptor — and explicitly acknowledged this figure is a significant undercount.
How can I verify an investment platform is legitimate?
In the US: check whether the firm or individual is registered with the SEC at investor.gov or FINRA BrokerCheck at brokercheck.finra.org. Unregistered investment offerings are among the most common SEC fraud categories. In the UK: use the FCA’s firm checker at fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register. The City of London Police specifically names FCA verification as the primary prevention measure against UK investment fraud. Never invest based solely on an online relationship, an app not found in major app stores, or a platform accessed through a link provided by a contact you have not met in person.