Americans reported more than $893 million in losses connected to AI-enabled scams during 2025, according to a bipartisan report from the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
The figure was associated with more than 22,000 complaints and formed part of nearly $21 billion in total reported cybercrime losses during the year. The committee warned that artificial intelligence is making impersonation, phishing, and social-engineering attacks cheaper to produce and easier to operate at scale.
Older adults remain particularly exposed. Federal Trade Commission data cited in the report shows that reported fraud losses among people aged 60 and older rose from approximately $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024.
Separate FBI data indicates that people over 60 reported $7.7 billion in cybercrime losses during 2025, an increase of nearly 60 percent from $4.8 billion the previous year. Those figures cover a wider range of cybercrime than AI-enabled fraud alone.
The committee highlighted voice cloning, fabricated images and videos, AI-written phishing messages, and chatbots designed to sustain fraudulent conversations. Generative AI can help criminals imitate a family member, government official, financial institution, or company employee while reducing the language and technical barriers that previously limited such attacks.
The report cites research suggesting that more than 82 percent of phishing emails now involve some form of AI assistance. It also points to an experiment in which automated spear-phishing emails achieved a 54 percent click-through rate, matching emails created by human experts and substantially outperforming generic phishing messages.
Committee staff described the trend as an industrialization of fraud. Specialized malicious tools can generate scam scripts, produce convincing messages, and automate parts of the victim-engagement process. Some are reportedly available for as little as $20.
The report was released alongside a Senate hearing featuring testimony from a scam victim and experts in banking, consumer protection, and technology policy. Lawmakers examined possible measures involving platform accountability, fraud reimbursement, digital literacy, and criminal enforcement.
Congress has already begun pursuing more targeted legislative responses. Senators recently introduced the Artificial Intelligence Scam Prevention Act, which would create federal penalties for using AI to impersonate another person as part of a fraudulent scheme.
Research also suggests that scammers may deliberately tailor their targeting to perceived vulnerability. A recent study found that online personas presented as older adults received substantially more scam exposure than younger personas.
The Senate report was developed by the committee’s majority and minority staff and does not constitute formal findings adopted by the committee. It nevertheless provides one of the clearest federal attempts to quantify how generative AI is changing the economics and scale of identity-based fraud.
Sources: U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, Committee Report, Senate Hearing
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
