How much money is lost to payment fraud each year?

Reported losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center were $20.877 billion in 2025, of which business email compromise accounted for $3.05 billion. Separately, the ACFE estimates organizations lose about 5% of revenue to occupational fraud annually. Neither figure captures fraud nobody reported.

What percentage of businesses experience payment fraud?

76% of United States organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud during 2025, according to the AFP's survey of 465 treasury practitioners. 74% were affected by business email compromise specifically.

Why is check fraud still the biggest category?

58% of organizations reported checks as subject to fraud in 2025, more than ACH debits or wires, even though checks are a minority of payment volume. A check carries an account number and a signature on paper, travels through the mail, and can be altered and re-presented, which the electronic methods do not allow in the same way.

Can I cite these figures?

Yes. Cite the linked original report. Each figure includes the publisher, report title, and publication date.

Payment fraud statistics

Each figure includes the publisher, report, publication date, and source link. The values come from the original reports.

Sources confirmed August 2026.

What is reported, and what it costs

$20.877 billion

Losses reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 totaled $20.877 billion across 1,008,597 complaints, a 26% increase in losses on 2024.

Reported losses, not total losses. Only crimes somebody complained about to IC3 appear here.

2025 Internet Crime Report, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, April 2026
$3.05 billion

Business email compromise produced $3,046,598,558 in reported losses from 24,768 complaints in 2025, the second-largest loss category after investment fraud.

Roughly $123,000 of reported loss per complaint, the highest of any high-volume category.

2025 Internet Crime Report, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, April 2026
$893 million

Complaints the FBI flagged as AI-related accounted for $893,346,472 in reported losses across 22,364 complaints in 2025.

2025 Internet Crime Report, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, April 2026
85%

Cyber-enabled fraud made up 45% of complaints reported to IC3 in 2025 and 85% of the losses, at $17.697 billion.

2025 Internet Crime Report, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center, April 2026

How common it is

76%

76% of organizations in the United States experienced attempted or actual payments fraud during 2025.

2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, Association for Financial Professionals, April 2026
74%

74% of organizations were affected by business email compromise during 2025.

2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, Association for Financial Professionals, April 2026
58%

Checks remained the payment method most often subject to fraud, reported by 58% of organizations, ahead of ACH debits at 30% and wire transfers at 25%.

Checks are a minority of payment volume and the largest share of fraud, which is the reason the gap is worth quoting.

2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, Association for Financial Professionals, April 2026
17%

17% of organizations reported using AI to combat payments fraud, against the 76% experiencing attempted or actual fraud.

2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, Association for Financial Professionals, April 2026
66%

66% of organizations with revenue above $1 billion reported financial losses to payments fraud, against 48% of those below it.

2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, Association for Financial Professionals, April 2026

Fraud from inside the organization

5%

Organizations lose an estimated 5% of revenue to occupational fraud each year.

Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, May 2026
$104,000

The median loss per occupational fraud case was $104,000, against an average of $1,457,000 across 2,402 cases.

The gap between median and average is the point: a small number of very large cases pulls the average far above the typical one.

Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, May 2026
12 months

A typical occupational fraud ran for 12 months before it was detected.

Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, May 2026
43%

Tips accounted for 43% of occupational fraud discoveries, with employees providing more than half of those tips.

The most effective detection method in the study is a person telling somebody, not a control.

Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, May 2026

Check fraud specifically

15,417

Financial institutions filed 15,417 Bank Secrecy Act reports on mail theft-related check fraud in the 6 months from February to August 2023, from 841 separate institutions.

Mail Theft-Related Check Fraud: Threat Pattern and Trend Information, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, September 2024
$688 million

Those reports covered more than $688 million in suspicious activity, with banks filing 88% of them and most coming from small and medium-sized banks.

Suspicious activity reported, not confirmed loss. A report is a suspicion recorded, and some will not be fraud.

Mail Theft-Related Check Fraud: Threat Pattern and Trend Information, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, September 2024

Sources

Cite the original sources. Each figure comes from the publisher's document.

2025 Internet Crime Report: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center. Published April 2026. 1,008,597 complaints reported to IC3 during 2025.
2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report: Association for Financial Professionals. Published April 2026. 465 treasury and finance practitioners surveyed in January 2026, reporting on 2025 activity.
Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations: Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Published May 2026. 2,402 real occupational fraud cases investigated across 143 countries and territories.
Mail Theft-Related Check Fraud: Threat Pattern and Trend Information: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Published September 2024. 15,417 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed by 841 financial institutions, February to August 2023.

Questions

How much money is lost to payment fraud each year?: Reported losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center were $20.877 billion in 2025, of which business email compromise accounted for $3.05 billion. Separately, the ACFE estimates organizations lose about 5% of revenue to occupational fraud annually. Neither figure captures fraud nobody reported.
What percentage of businesses experience payment fraud?: 76% of United States organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud during 2025, according to the AFP's survey of 465 treasury practitioners. 74% were affected by business email compromise specifically.
Why is check fraud still the biggest category?: 58% of organizations reported checks as subject to fraud in 2025, more than ACH debits or wires, even though checks are a minority of payment volume. A check carries an account number and a signature on paper, travels through the mail, and can be altered and re-presented, which the electronic methods do not allow in the same way.
Can I cite these figures?: Yes. Cite the linked original report. Each figure includes the publisher, report title, and publication date.

Accounts payable statistics