Online Real Estate Fraud Climbed to $275M in 2025, FBI Says

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 12,000 real estate fraud complaints last year.

Cyber criminals stole more than $275 million through real estate-related fraud from at least 12,368 victims last year, according to a new reportpdf from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Those figures are higher than 2024 and 2023—which saw 9,359 complaints totaling more than $173 million in losses and 9,521 complaints totaling about $145 million, respectively—but significantly less than 2022’s peakpdf of 11,727 complaints and a whopping $397 million in losses.

IC3 considers financial loss from a real estate investment or fraud involving rental or timeshare property as “real estate fraud.”

The FBI report outlines how just about anyone, at any age and real estate experience level, can fall victim to these crimes, with persons in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s submitting an equal amount of real estate-related fraud reports last year.

The report, which notes that total cybercrime losses have reached about $20.9 billion, emphasizes how AI is shaping fraud by helping schemers appear more convincing and thwarting victims by becoming harder to detect.

“AI technology enables the creation of convincing synthetic content, such as social media profiles and personalized conversations, often in mass quantities,” the report says. “People have manipulated video and audio similarly for decades, but the widespread availability of this developing technology makes it possible to create high-quality content.”

In July 2025, REALTOR® News covered a growing cryptocurrency scheme known as pig butchering—the practice of scammers gaining trust and gradually encouraging victims to invest more and more money into false accounts by showing fake profits. The U.S. Secret Service said this particular scam resulted in $15 million total in losses for 60 real estate agents.

Agent Awareness and Prevention

The National Association of REALTORS® published a Window the Law video warning real estate professionals about these scams, along with an NAR Cryptoscam Awareness one-sheetpdf that outlines red flags and best practices.

Brokers are encouraged to have a risk-reduction plan in place and regularly offer AI cybersecurity and wire fraud training for agents and staff.

The FBI IC3 report describes a success story where preparation and awareness prevented a fraudulent transaction from being completed. The individuals who were closing on a house received an email impersonating their attorneys and mistakenly sent a large wire transfer to a scammer.

“A wire was submitted at their bank for over $449,000 and was sent to the recipient bank. After the fraud was discovered, the individuals reported the fraud to their bank, and their attorneys made separate attempts to contact the recipient bank with negative results,” the FBI report states.

“Upon receiving the IC3 complaint filed about the incident, the [IC3 Recovery Asset Team] immediately initiated the [Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC)] to request a freeze of the fraudulent account at the recipient bank. The RAT received notification from the recipient bank that the full amount was still in the account and on hold.”

Reprinted from NAR. https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/online-real-estate-fraud-climbed-to-275m-in-2025-fbi-says?utm_term=BCE6648E-57BC-433A-91E3-0DB69C0963A7&lrh=c8a3af23dfb34d1b917bb445b6716fbd998e35dd5ca16f6e15073cc182f4cb9a&utm_campaign=3BFA9068-DFBC-477B-BC94-C168B9A999F1&nwsltr=navnar&utm_content=A2C9C109-BE83-4B27-A41C-06B03B463B56