Cybercrime losses reached nearly $21 billion last year, prompting Kurt Knutsson to warn of increasingly sophisticated AI scams. He joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to break down the FBI data, highlighting that investment fraud alone cost victims $8.65 billion. Knutsson hosts a free live class to teach families how to protect their money and secure accounts.
Nearly $21 billion. That number jumped out at me when I looked at the FBI's latest cybercrime data. Behind that enormous loss are families who watched savings disappear and people who trusted the wrong investment pitch. Some victims had no clue someone was moving their money until they checked an account.
Americans reported nearly $21 billion in losses to cyber-enabled crime during 2025, up 26% from the year before. Investment fraud caused the biggest financial hit at about $8.65 billion. I recently joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" to talk about those numbers and a bigger problem I see coming. Scammers now have AI tools that can make a fake message, voice or identity far more believable than the clumsy scams many of us learned to recognize years ago. That changes how we need to protect our money.
Here are five practical steps you can take now to put stronger barriers between scammers and your savings.
Missed CyberGuy LIVE? Watch the Protect Your Money replay
Our free CyberGuy LIVE class, Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats , has ended, but you can still watch the full replay and download our financial protection checklist. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson walks you through five simple ways to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks. You’ll learn how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers. No technical experience is needed.
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IDENTITY THEFT LOSSES SURGE 70% FOR OLDER AMERICANS
Americans reported nearly $21 billion in cyber-enabled crime losses in 2025, as scammers increasingly used artificial intelligence to make fraud more convincing. (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
For years, one of the standard pieces of scam advice was to look for obvious mistakes. Maybe an email had terrible grammar. Perhaps the caller sounded suspicious. AI can now erase many of those clues.
The FBI says its Internet Crime Complaint Center received 22,364 complaints in 2025 that included AI-related information. Reported losses tied to those complaints reached about $893 million. The FBI also warns that criminals can use AI to create fake social profiles, cloned voices and convincing videos.
That gives scammers another way to build trust before asking for money or personal information. So telling you to "be careful" no longer feels like enough advice to me. I want barriers between a scammer and your money.
You cannot predict every scam that may come your way. However, you can put safeguards in place that make it harder for a criminal to reach your money.
Start with your bank and credit cards. Open the official app or website for each financial institution and look for notification settings. Turn on alerts for transactions and transfers. You may also be able to receive warnings about suspicious account activity.
The exact choices vary by bank. However, the goal stays simple. If money moves and you did not authorize it, you want to know quickly. I have talked with victims who discovered fraud long after criminals gained access. A real-time alert gives you a chance to call the financial institution and react much sooner.
