AI-powered social engineering contributes to $16.6 billion in fraud losses
According to the FBI, cybercrime losses reached $16.6 billion in 2024, up 33% year-over-year – and a lot of it is driven by AI-enabled social engineering attacks.
Across various sources and analyses, we can see exactly how those attacks are taking shape. For instance, a Kaufman Rossin analysis highlights vishing tactics using AI-generated voice cloning to impersonate bank representatives and officials, now indistinguishable from genuine voices in controlled tests. A Consumer Reports investigation also found that commercial voice cloning tools create convincing replicas with minimal safeguards. “Boss scams” exploit social media data to impersonate managers and pressure new employees into fraudulent transactions.
In sum, billions of dollars are lost as cybercriminals find increasingly sophisticated ways to exploit employees’ trust.
Interpol operation exposes organized fraud networks spanning 70 countries
Interpol's Operation Haechi V uncovered coordinated business email compromise and fake vendor networks across 70 countries responsible for hundreds of millions in losses. Meanwhile, a Europol study also revealed impersonation-as-a-service operations selling verified bank accounts, forged credentials, and synthetic identities with post-sale support.
With the FBI reporting that business email compromise schemes caused over $3 billion in global losses during 2024, it’s crucial for finance leaders to understand that fraud networks operate like industrial supply chains – and to understand whether their organization’s fraud controls are adequate in this sort of threat environment.
Read our deep dive into Interpol’s operation and what it means for finance leaders.
Scams now account for 27% of US bank fraud losses
A PYMNTS Intelligence study found that 3 in 10 US adults (roughly 77 million people) lost money to scams over five years, with fraudsters using mass personalization tactics borrowed from growth marketing.
Criminals tailor outreach by age, income, and habits. Gen Z victims encounter 21% of scams via social media, while boomers face 23% through email and 21% via phone. Scams jumped from 12% to 27% of banks' fraud losses between 2023 and 2024, and the study recommends dynamic defenses including behavioral monitoring, scenario-based customer education, and contact-channel controls to identify out-of-pattern behavior before scammers reach victims.
Federal Reserve's rare single-topic focus underscores fraud urgency
The Federal Reserve devoted its Second Issue 2025 of Consumer Compliance Outlook entirely to fraud, signaling heightened regulatory priority as US consumers lost $12.5 billion in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023.
The issue covers surging check fraud despite declining check volume, prompting a March 2025 executive order to cease most federal check disbursements. Topics include confidence scams exploiting trust, staff training to detect red flags, and a joint regulatory request for information on combating payments fraud. The Fed emphasizes that fraud-related suspicious activity reports nearly doubled from 2020 to 2024, expecting increased supervisory scrutiny of institutional fraud risk management.
The Better Business Bureau issued a recent warning that "ghost tapping" scams are abusing near-field communication technology in contactless payment chips and digital wallets.
Criminals use wireless readers in crowded spaces to access tap-enabled cards without detection, or pose as vendors to initiate small charges that evade fraud systems. Recorded Future's Insikt Group identified organized networks distributing phones and phishing software to scale these operations.
While it was a US agency to issue the warning, ghost tapping has been flagged as a risk worldwide. Hear Eftsure’s Chief Technology Officer, David Higgins, explain ghost tapping on the Friends With Money podcast.
