AI-Industrialized Fraud: Scammers Netted $14B in 2025
Chainalysis reveals AI-driven tactics pushed 2025 scam revenue to $14 billion as average victim losses tripled.
The Efficiency Vector Shift
The manual grind of crypto theft is over; the automation era has begun. Chainalysis reports today that illicit actors extracted $14 billion from on-chain victims in 2025, a figure expected to be revised upward to exceed $17 billion. While the total volume is staggering, the efficiency metrics are the real signal: the average scam payment jumped 253% year-over-year to $2,764.
This isn’t random noise. It is a calculated shift toward high-value targeting powered by artificial intelligence. AI-driven operations are now generating 4.5 times more revenue per attack than traditional schemes. The barrier to entry has collapsed while the yield per victim has tripled.
The “Lighthouse” & The Industrial Complex
The report identifies a structural pivot from lone-wolf hackers to “fraud-as-a-service” syndicates. Impersonation tactics, leveraging deepfakes and voice cloning, surged 1,400% in 2025. This growth is fueled by off-the-shelf toolkits like “Lighthouse,” a phishing-as-a-service vendor cited in a recent lawsuit that enabled attackers to blast 330,000 fraudulent SMS messages daily.
AI-enabled scams were 4.5 times more profitable than traditional scams. Major scam operations became increasingly industrialized… including phishing-as-a-service tools and professional money laundering networks.
Institutional Context: The Southeast Asia Connection
The flow of stolen funds reveals a solidified geopolitical pipeline. Chainalysis tracking confirms that revenue from “pig butchering” schemes (investment confidence fraud) is systematically funneled into wallets linked to Chinese money-laundering networks. These operations are physically rooted in Southeast Asian forced-labor compounds, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar.
Law enforcement is responding with record-breaking seizures, including a $15 billion recovery linked to the “Prince Group” criminal organization. But as the report notes, the adversary is no longer just a scammer; it is an enterprise.
