Malwarebytes
Reports
All Statistics
70% of young adults ages 18 to 22 experienced an AI-related scam in the past year.
50% of the general population experienced an AI-related scam in the past year.
24% of young adults have been a victim of an extortion scam.
One in ten adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have had explicit AI images made of them without consent.
81% of parents in the surveyed countries fear their child's likeness will be stolen.
19% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have turned off voicemail recordings to prevent voice cloning.
25% of people use a personal data removal service, up from 23%.
84% of people have not shared personal health information with AI tools.
49% of people have stopped using TikTok.
MobiDash (a particularly aggressive adware) detections increased by 77% from September through November 2025.
Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP) detections increased by nearly 75% in the June to November 2025 period compared to the December to May period.
Adware levels nearly doubled from the December to May period to the June to November timeframe in 2025, with a 27% increase observed from August through November.
45% of people have been targeted by Adware.
20% of people have fallen victim to Adware.
12% of consumers have been victims of postal tracking scams.
53% of extortion victims are non-white.
52% of victims of other types of mobile scams (i.e., not extortion) are Gen Z or Millennial.
45% of extortion victims are parents.
Only 21% of iPhone users reported using security software on their mobile phones. This is less than Android users, where 29% stated they use security software.
53% of iPhone users have fallen victim to a scam. This compares to 48% of Android users who have fallen victim to a scam.
41% of iPhone users admitted to sending a direct message (DM) on social media to a company or seller's account to get a discount. This behaviour was less common among Android users, with 33% admitting to it.
Exposure to mobile scams is highest in the US (51%) and UK (49%), and notably lower in DACH (38%).
Gen X encountered extortion scams at 35% and fell victim at 15%.
Only 14% of younger generation scam victims report scam to authorities.
89% of people "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that they are "concerned about my personal data being used inappropriately by corporations".
89% of people are "concerned about my data being used by AI tools without my consent".
69% of respondents said they use "multifactor authentication," or MFA.
17% of the general population have been a victim of an extortion scam.
19% of young adults have been a victim of a deepfake or virtual kidnapping scam.
8% of the general population have been a victim of a deepfake or virtual kidnapping scam.
7% of the general population have been a victim of sextortion.
14% of young adults have been a victim of an impersonation scam.
10% of the general population have been a victim of an impersonation scam.
12% of young adults have been a victim of a romance scam.
10% of the general population have been a victim of a romance scam.
8% of young adults have been a victim of sextortion.
19% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have experienced AI-driven identity harm, rising to 30% among Gen Z.
13% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have created a family codeword to guard against likeness theft.
One in three daily AI users in the surveyed countries say it is okay to generate explicit images of someone without their consent.
85% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland say it is hard to tell a scam apart from the real thing, up from 66% in 2025.
88% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland say it is becoming harder to tell what online content is genuinely human or real.
Exposure to AI fraud or scams is 67% for Gen Z, 51% for Millennials, 46% for Gen X, and 30% for Boomers and older.
81% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland fear someone stealing their family's likeness.
67% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland worry about voice cloning.
74% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland are concerned about experiencing a deepfake or other AI-generated scam.
32% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland say it is okay to use AI to imitate someone's voice or appearance for personal use.
18% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland say it is okay to use AI to generate explicit images of someone they do not know.
50% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have experienced some form of AI fraud or scam.
84% of adults aged 18+ in the United States, UK, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland say convincing video evidence no longer feels like proof.
Exposure to AI fraud or scams is 56% in the United States, 48% in the UK, and 47% in the DACH region.