Hawai‘i Fraud Losses Increased 25 Percent to $79.6 Million in 2025

Hawai‘i saw a 25 percent increase in the reported amount of money lost to fraud and is fifth in the country among states for per-capita losses, according to the latest FBI and FTC fraud reports.

The Federal Trade Commission received 8,665 fraud complaints last year resulting in $79.6 million lost by Hawai‘i consumers compared to $63.7 million lost in 2024 from 8,932 reports. The actual losses are likely much higher because many victims do not report fraud.

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On a per-capita basis, Hawai’i consumers reported losing more than $7.4 million per 100,000 residents, ranking Hawai’i fifth behind Arizona ($8.2 million), Nevada ($9.2 million), California ($9.3 million) and the District of Columbia ($14 million) and ahead of New Jersey ($6.9 million).

Nationally, the FBI reports receiving more than one million fraud complaints with nearly $21 billion in losses, a 26 percent increase in losses from 2024. Kupuna 60 and older reported the highest money losses compared to other age groups with about $7.7 billion stolen by scams, up about 60 percent from 2024.

About $11 billion was lost to scams involving cryptocurrency. The FBI also reported on the growing trend of cryptocurrency kiosk/atms being involved in scams. 

AARP Hawai‘i lobbied in the Legislature for stronger consumer protections around cryptocurrency kiosk/ATM fraud and lawmakers passed House Bill 1642, which bans kiosks that accept deposits. The bill goes to the governor’s office for his signature. It was also supported by the Attorney General, county prosecutors and the state Office of Consumer Protection.

“The FBI reports that scammers are increasingly using these machines to steal. Last year, scammers took $389 million using cryptocurrency kioks and the vast majority of the victims were kupuna.” said Grant Chun, the AARP Hawai’i state president. “We thank lawmakers for passing House Bill 1642 and urge the governor to sign the bill into law.”

Yuriko Higa, 93, of Kea’au, says she was almost a victim. She is sharing her story to alert others about the problem of fraud and cryptocurrency kioks.

Higa said her computer froze earlier this year and a note appeared on her screen telling her to call Apple to solve the problem. Higa called the number, which turned out to be a scam phone number, and was told that her computer was frozen because of illegal activity and $20,000 was being withdrawn from her bank account by someone in China.

Higa said the scammer told her she could recover the money if she acted quickly by taking $25,000, including a $5,000 fee, out of her bank account and putting it in a safe account using a cryptocurrency kiosk/ATM machine at a convenience store. Higa was told she might lose all of the money if she told anyone about what was happening.

“He told me to listen to him carefully and that he would take me step by step about what I must do,” Higa said.

After withdrawing the money, the scammer explained how to deposit the cash into the crypotocurrency kiosk. Luckily, a passerby noticed Higa attempting to put money in the machine and after listening to her story, advised her that she thought Higa was being scammed.