IC3 Elder Fraud Reported Figures (2024-2025), and why the average-loss figures are not comparable

Elder-fraud figures for complainants aged 60+, transcribed from the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center's own Annual Report PDFs and read on 2026-08-03. The finding: the printed average-loss figures for 2024 ($83,000) and 2025 ($38,500) use different denominators and must not be compared. The 2025 figure reconciles exactly with the report's own totals ($7.748bn / 201,266 = $38,496); the 2024 figure does not ($4.885bn / 147,127 = $33,203), and implies a denominator of about 58,855 - roughly 40% of complaints filed - consistent with averaging only over complainants reporting a non-zero loss. Comparing them produces an apparent 54% fall in average loss in a year when total losses rose 59%. Complaint counts and loss totals are comparable; the averages are not. Also recorded: the 2025 report's $62,604 average loss and 18,589 six-figure losses belong to the cryptocurrency section covering all ages, not to elder fraud, and are routinely misattributed.