Global scam attempts jump 65% as banks tackle new fraud risks

New research from BioCatch has found that scam attempts have surged by 65% globally over the past year, with SMS-based phishing, or smishing, experiencing a tenfold increase.

The findings are derived from data supplied by financial institutions serving almost 350 million consumers across five continents, revealing significant growth in multiple types of scams targeting bank customers worldwide.

Global trends

The research highlights that reported scams in Europe have nearly doubled in the last twelve months. However, measures such as Confirmation of Payee in the UK are helping banks reduce losses associated with payments to new beneficiaries. This approach is designed to add a layer of verification, limiting the impact of scams such as authorised push payment fraud.

Breaking down the data, voice-based phishing, known as vishing, has increased by 100%, marking the sharpest rise among the scam categories tracked by BioCatch. Romance scams climbed by 63%, often leveraging social media and dating platforms to gain victims' trust and ultimately defraud them. Investment scams, which include fraudulent cryptocurrency and 'get-rich-quick' schemes, increased by 42%.

Purchase scams, which continue to be the most common scam type globally, are up 14% amid ongoing eCommerce fraud. Despite these increases, the study recorded a 15% decline in impersonation scams, attributed to the adoption of behavioural intelligence solutions within banks.

Tom Peacock, Director of Global Fraud Intelligence at BioCatch, pointed to the ubiquity of scam attempts felt by institutions and individuals alike. "While these numbers are staggering, they probably won't surprise anyone," he said. "Fraud and anti-money laundering team leaders at the world's largest banks fight through this scamming onslaught every single day, while the rest of us have undoubtedly noticed a marked surge in scammy text messages, emails, phone calls, and social posts."

Financial and social harm

Global Anti-Scam Alliance figures estimate that consumers lose $1.03 trillion to scams annually, a number that continues to grow. Organised criminal operations are believed to be the primary drivers behind this wave of fraudulent activity targeting both consumers and their financial service providers.

"The financial system is being exploited to exploit people," said Ian Mitchell, founder of The Knoble. "These crimes take many forms: Generational wealth stolen through scams, people enslaved in scam centers, images of exploited children bought and sold online, money moved across the world to fund other heinous crimes. The reality is that organized criminal activity is not only stealing money. In some cases, it's also stealing lives."

The report also outlines how the operational scale of these scams has grown, moving from isolated incidents to entire regions dedicated to fraudulent activities.

"These aren't backroom operations or something happening in the shadows," Operation Shamrock Founder Erin West said. "Entire cities are now dedicated to scams, operating openly, protected, and expanding. They're boomtowns, but instead of producing goods, their industry is fraud."

Mitigation and behavioural solutions

Amid the significant increase in scam attempts, BioCatch's research notes a 15% fall in impersonation scams among its customer base. This improvement is attributed in part to the implementation of behavioural intelligence solutions, which seek to identify and stop fraud based on how individuals interact with digital platforms. In July, BioCatch launched Scams360, a tool it claims enhances protection against scam types traditionally difficult for banks to detect or prevent, such as romance, investment, business-email-compromise, and purchase scams.

BioCatch's latest report, titled 2025 Global Scams: Using behavioral and device intelligence to shine a light on social engineering scams, also features a case study from a European banking customer. The case details how everyday financial transactions can in some circumstances reflect the deeper hold scammers exert over victims' lives. In one example, the victim was a mother recovering from cancer, with her daughter managing her finances, highlighting the personal and often hidden cost of financial crime beyond financial losses alone.

The study underscores the resilience and adaptation of both criminal networks and the banking sector, with new technologies and regulatory measures continuing their struggle in the ongoing challenge of global financial scams.