AI Business Email Scams Cost Firms $224,123 Per Complaint in 2025, New US Study Finds

AI business email scams cost firms $224,123 per complaint in 2025, a new US study finds, highlighting serious financial risks for airlines, hotels and travel companies. Research by Simmrin Law Group reveals that business email compromise generated the highest average losses among ten AI-related fraud categories, despite relatively few complaints.

AI-Related Business Email Fraud Raises Concerns Across the Travel Industry

Artificial intelligence is reshaping global travel operations, improving customer service, reservation management, airline communications and digital payments. However, the same technology can also help criminals produce convincing fraudulent messages targeting businesses that regularly process substantial financial transactions.

A study by US-based Simmrin Law Group, analysing the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) figures, identifies business email compromise (BEC) as the AI-related crime category with the highest average reported financial loss per complaint.

The findings carry important implications for airlines, hotel groups, travel management companies, tour operators, cruise businesses and other organisations handling supplier payments, customer refunds and international transactions.

Although AI-related BEC represented just 135 complaints, equivalent to approximately 0.6% of all 22,364 AI-related complaints, it generated $30.26 million in reported losses.

The average financial loss reached $224,123 per complaint, considerably exceeding other categories of AI-related fraud.

Importantly, these figures represent arithmetic averages rather than the amount typically lost by an individual victim.

Business Email Compromise Records the Highest Average Loss

The research identifies a substantial difference between the financial impact of BEC and other AI-related offences.

Investment-related fraud recorded an average loss of $145,097 per complaint, making BEC approximately 54.5% more expensive on a per-complaint basis.

Technology and customer support scams averaged $33,897, while phishing and spoofing complaints averaged $12,807.

Consequently, BEC’s average financial impact was approximately 6.6 times that of technology support fraud and 17.5 times that of phishing and spoofing.

The findings demonstrate that the frequency of reported incidents does not necessarily reflect the financial severity of a particular cybercrime category.

For travel businesses managing large supplier invoices, aircraft-related payments, hotel contracts or international service agreements, a single fraudulent transaction could create significant financial disruption.

Investment Fraud Accounts for Most AI-Related Financial Losses

While BEC recorded the highest average loss per complaint, investment fraud remained responsible for the largest proportion of reported AI-related financial damage.

According to the study, investment-related complaints generated approximately $632.04 million in losses across 4,356 complaints.

This represented 70.7% of the $893.35 million in total reported AI-related losses.

By comparison, BEC accounted for approximately 3.4% of those losses.

The distinction is important because the two categories illustrate different dimensions of financial exposure.

Investment fraud dominates overall reported losses, whereas BEC presents particularly high financial exposure per complaint.

For businesses operating across international markets, the findings reinforce the importance of assessing both the frequency and potential financial consequences of cybercrime.

Why Airlines, Hotels and Travel Companies Face Payment Risks

The travel industry depends on extensive networks of suppliers, distribution partners, accommodation providers, ground handlers and financial intermediaries.

These commercial relationships often involve frequent email correspondence and payments across different countries and currencies.

Business email compromise exploits the trust established through such communications.

Criminals may impersonate company executives, suppliers or established business partners to request payments or changes to banking information.

Fraudulent messages can also originate from compromised legitimate email accounts, making suspicious instructions harder to recognise.

AI-generated text may increase the apparent credibility of these communications by producing professional language and imitating familiar correspondence styles.

For example, a hotel operator could receive a fraudulent request appearing to originate from a regular supplier, while an airline could encounter altered payment instructions presented as legitimate business correspondence.

These are illustrative risks rather than incidents established by the study.

The FBI’s figures do not identify the specific AI techniques used in individual complaints.

FBI Data Shows Wider Business Email Fraud Losses

The wider FBI statistics underline the financial significance of business email compromise beyond incidents specifically classified as AI-related.

In 2025, the FBI recorded 24,768 BEC complaints involving approximately $3.05 billion in reported losses across all methods.

The corresponding figures for 2024 were 21,442 complaints and $2.77 billion in losses.

This represents an annual increase of approximately 15.5% in complaints and 10% in financial losses.

Looking further back, reported BEC losses stood at approximately $2.95 billion in 2023, involving 21,489 complaints.

These figures indicate continued substantial financial exposure from fraudulent business communications.

However, the broader BEC statistics cannot establish that artificial intelligence caused the increase.

The FBI has not provided a directly comparable three-year series isolating AI-related BEC complaints.

Stronger Payment Verification Becomes Essential

For travel organisations, effective protection against business email compromise requires clear payment verification procedures and consistent staff awareness.

The FBI recommends independently confirming changes to payment instructions through trusted contact information.

Businesses should avoid relying exclusively on the email address or message requesting a financial transfer.

This is particularly important when instructions involve unfamiliar bank accounts, urgent international payments or unexpected changes to established supplier arrangements.

Travel companies can strengthen their internal controls by introducing additional authorisation requirements for substantial transactions and maintaining verified supplier contact records.

Training employees to recognise unusual payment requests also remains important, particularly as fraudulent communications become increasingly sophisticated.

These measures can help reduce exposure without unnecessarily disrupting legitimate commercial operations.

The analysis was conducted by Simmrin Law Group using the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center data.

It compared reported financial losses and complaint volumes across ten AI-related crime categories, including investment fraud, business email compromise, phishing, employment scams and government impersonation.

The research highlights average financial losses per complaint rather than median losses or the typical experience of victims.

The findings are based on reported complaints and should not be interpreted as a complete measurement of all cybercrime incidents.

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