Account Takeover Fraud Statistics: 2026 Report
Our analysts reviewed FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data on account takeover and five crime types tied to it, 30 complaint and loss figures from 2023 to 2025, along with the FBI's 2025 account takeover counts and complaints by age from the 1,008,597 complaints IC3 received in 2025, to show how account takeover fraud has changed as of Q4 2026.
Key Findings
- The FBI counted about 4,700 account takeover complaints in 2025 with $359.7 million in losses, about $76,500 per complaint and 3.7 times the $20,699 average for all complaints.
- Losses from phishing and spoofing rose from $18.7 million in 2023 to $215.8 million in 2025, more than 11 times higher, even as phishing complaints fell 35.9%.
- Identity theft complaints rose 60.2% from 2023 to 2025, to 31,675, and credit card and check fraud losses rose 62.8%, to $282.7 million.
- The five crime types tied to account takeover accounted for $2.02 billion in 2025 losses, 9.7% of the $20.877 billion reported to IC3.
- SIM swap losses fell 64.4% from 2023 to 2025, to $17.4 million.
Account takeover fraud happens when a criminal gets into someone else's bank, payroll, or other financial account and moves money out. Criminals most often pose as a bank's staff or support team by text, call, or email, or set up fake login pages, to collect passwords and one-time codes, then reset the password and lock the owner out.
The FBI does not report account takeover as one crime type. Victims file it under phishing and spoofing, personal data breach, identity theft, credit card and check fraud, or SIM swap, the methods criminals use to get in and the frauds that follow. We gathered complaints and losses for those five types from the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, which compares 2023, 2024, and 2025, and set them against the FBI's separate account takeover count.
In the following sections, we compare losses by crime type, complaint counts, the average loss per complaint, and complaints by age.
Phishing Losses Rose More Than Elevenfold In Two Years
Reported losses show how much money victims lost to each method. We gathered losses for the five crime types tied to account takeover for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
| Crime type | 2023, millions of US dollars | 2024, millions of US dollars | 2025, millions of US dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal data breach | $744.2 | $1,453.3 | $1,314.9 |
| Credit card and check fraud | $173.6 | $199.9 | $282.7 |
| Phishing and spoofing | $18.7 | $70.0 | $215.8 |
| Identity theft | $126.2 | $174.4 | $185.8 |
| SIM swap | $48.8 | $26.0 | $17.4 |
Key Findings
- Phishing and spoofing losses tripled from 2024 to 2025, from $70.0 million to $215.8 million.
- Personal data breach losses fell 9.5% in 2025 but were still 76.7% higher than in 2023.
- SIM swap was the only one of the five types with lower losses in each year, down from $48.8 million in 2023 to $17.4 million in 2025.
Identity Theft And Card Fraud Complaints Rose Sharply In 2025
Complaint counts show how many people reported each crime. We gathered complaints for the same five crime types for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
| Crime type | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phishing and spoofing | 298,878 | 193,407 | 191,561 |
| Personal data breach | 55,851 | 64,882 | 67,456 |
| Identity theft | 19,778 | 21,403 | 31,675 |
| Credit card and check fraud | 13,718 | 12,876 | 18,774 |
| SIM swap | 1,075 | 982 | 971 |
Key Findings
- Identity theft complaints rose 48.0% in 2025 alone, from 21,403 to 31,675.
- Credit card and check fraud complaints rose 45.8% in 2025, to 18,774.
- Phishing and spoofing was still the most reported crime type of all in 2025, with 191,561 complaints, though that was 35.9% fewer than in 2023.
Account Takeover Victims Lose Far More Per Complaint
The average loss per complaint shows how much each successful attack costs. We divided 2025 losses by 2025 complaints for each crime type and for the FBI's account takeover count.
| Crime type | Complaints | Losses, US dollars | Average loss per complaint, US dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account takeover | About 4,700 | $359,700,000 | About $76,532 |
| All IC3 complaints | 1,008,597 | $20,877,000,000 | $20,699 |
| Personal data breach | 67,456 | $1,314,923,988 | $19,493 |
| SIM swap | 971 | $17,366,758 | $17,885 |
| Credit card and check fraud | 18,774 | $282,670,235 | $15,056 |
| Identity theft | 31,675 | $185,832,657 | $5,867 |
| Phishing and spoofing | 191,561 | $215,843,126 | $1,127 |
Key Findings
- The average account takeover complaint reported a loss of about $76,500, 3.7 times the average for all IC3 complaints.
- Account takeover complaints were 0.5% of all 2025 complaints but 1.7% of reported losses.
- The FBI says account takeover cases can involve 50 or more transfers to accounts at different banks at the same time, which helps explain the larger losses.
Complaints Peak Among Adults Aged 30 To 49
Complaints by age show who reports these crimes most. We gathered 2025 complaints for identity theft, credit card and check fraud, and phishing and spoofing for each age group the FBI reports for complainants under 60.
| Age group | Identity theft | Credit card and check fraud | Phishing and spoofing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 20 | 487 | 451 | 2,380 |
| 20 to 29 | 3,526 | 1,760 | 19,765 |
| 30 to 39 | 6,498 | 2,767 | 27,433 |
| 40 to 49 | 6,433 | 2,958 | 27,800 |
| 50 to 59 | 5,528 | 2,810 | 26,782 |
Key Findings
- Adults aged 30 to 39 filed the most identity theft complaints, 6,498, and adults aged 40 to 49 filed the most credit card and check fraud complaints, 2,958.
- Phishing complaints were nearly flat across ages 30 to 59, between 26,782 and 27,800.
- Of the 642 FBI fund-freeze cases for victims 60 and older in 2025, 360 involved tech support or account takeover scams.
What Account Takeover Data Means For Account Holders In 2026
Account takeover is a small share of complaints but one of the costliest, and the methods behind it are growing. Phishing losses have risen more than elevenfold since 2023, and identity theft and card fraud complaints jumped in 2025, while SIM swap, an older route into accounts, is fading.
Criminals now rely more on persuading customers to hand over login codes than on breaking into phone accounts. Banks and fintech companies will likely add more checks on new devices, payees, and large transfers, and customers who act within hours have the best chance of getting money back.
So if someone calls, texts, or emails claiming to be your bank, hang up, log in through your saved bookmark or app, and call the number on your card before you share any code.
Data Collection and Methodology
All figures come from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center's 2025 Internet Crime Report and its November 25, 2025 public service announcement on account takeover fraud. IC3 data covers complaints filed by the public, so it counts only crimes that victims reported, and losses are the amounts complainants reported.
The FBI does not list account takeover as one of its crime types. Its annual report gives account takeover as a scheme it tracked in 2025, with approximately 4,700 complaints and $359.7 million in losses. Its earlier public service announcement reported more than 5,100 account takeover complaints and losses exceeding $262 million from January to November 25, 2025. The two figures were counted differently, so we use the annual report's full-year count in our tables and calculations.
We chose phishing and spoofing, personal data breach, identity theft, credit card and check fraud, and SIM swap as the crime types tied to account takeover because they cover the ways criminals get into accounts and the fraud that follows. A complaint can involve more than one crime type, and account takeover complaints overlap with these types. Average loss per complaint is our calculation, total losses divided by complaints, except for all IC3 complaints, where we use the FBI's reported average. The account takeover average uses the FBI's approximate complaint count, so it is approximate. Complaints by age cover the five age groups under 60, because the FBI reports complainants 60 and older in a separate section. All figures are in US dollars, so no currency conversion was needed.
Sources
- The Fintech Index analysis of FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center account takeover and fraud complaint data, conducted November 2026
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Account Takeover Fraud via Impersonation of Financial Institution Support, November 25, 2025
- Table, Losses Reported to the FBI by Crime Type: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report (Source 2). Data: ato_linked_losses_by_year.csv
- Chart, Losses Reported to the FBI by Crime Type: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report.
- Table, Complaints to the FBI by Crime Type: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report (Source 2). Data: ato_linked_complaints_by_year.csv
- Chart, Complaints to the FBI by Crime Type: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report. The account takeover count is the FBI's approximate figure.
- Table, Average Loss per Complaint in 2025: Source: The Fintech Index analysis (Source 1) of FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report (Source 2). Data: average_loss_per_complaint_2025.csv
- Chart, Average Loss per Complaint in 2025: Source: The Fintech Index calculation from FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report. Account takeover is a scheme the FBI tracks across crime types, so its complaints overlap with the other rows and its count is approximate.
- Table, Complaints to the FBI by Age Group in 2025: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report (Source 2). The FBI reports complainants 60 and older in a separate section. Data: complaints_by_age_2025.csv
- Chart, Complaints to the FBI by Age Group in 2025: Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report. The FBI reports crime types for complainants 60 and older in a separate section.