The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a staggering dataset that confirms what many defensive teams have long suspected: social engineering is no longer just a tactical entry point; it is a booming macroeconomic industry. According to the FTC's latest report, consumers reported losing a record $3.5 billion to imposter scams, nearly three times the losses reported since 2020. Imposter scams now dominate the threat landscape, accounting for nearly one in three of all fraud reports filed.
fraudprevention (8)
In the corporate world, substantial budgets, resources, and technical ingenuity are routinely dedicated to securing networks, hardening firewalls, fine-tuning endpoint detection, and monitoring cloud configurations. A new report from ScamZero forces a look at an equally devastating and rapidly evolving theater of conflict: the consumer and workforce fraud ecosystem.
The 2025-2026 Scam Report from ScamZero highlights a massive, sophisticated market that has evolved into a fully professionalized
By the time Ayleen Charlotte realized what had happened, she was broke, in debt, and did not know what to do. Her boyfriend of well over a year was Shimon Hayut, the infamous "Tinder Swindler," and she was one of many women he had scammed out of nearly everything they had. The women were victims of a "pig-butchering" scam, a type of social engineering campaign in which the criminal spends months building trust with the target, just as a farmer takes time to fatten a pig before slaughter, befor
A new report from Cyfirma has identified a sophisticated Android application, "Hicas," which, while masquerading as a "Smart Travel Packing Companion" on the Google Play Store, covertly functions as a fraudulent loan platform. The app, which has amassed over 500,000 downloads, specifically targets users in India, raising significant concerns about financial crime and data privacy. Initially appearing as a legitimate utility designed to assist travelers with packing, Hicas presented itself inno
Social media has overtaken email as the primary channel for online scams in the UK, accounting for 34% of reported incidents according to recent research. This shift highlights growing concerns over fraudulent content on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, particularly in finance-related advertising. A new analysis by BrokerChooser examined over 1,200 active finance-related ads in the Meta Ads Library to assess exposure to high-risk promotions across multiple countries. The study classi
After years of quiet escalation, business leaders are finally beginning to grasp just how serious the threat of fraud has become. Today, almost half of all fraud attempts (41%) involve artificial intelligence. Nowhere is this more evident than in the payments industry. Fraudsters can use AI to generate convincing fake invoices, purchase orders, and payment instructions that mirror legitimate business documents. I’ve seen examples that are indistinguishable from the real thing, which is a tre
The Dun & Bradstreet Financial Services & Insurance Pulse Survey 2025, built on responses from more than 2,000 senior professionals across five markets (US, UK, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland), reveals a sector racing to modernize but hamstrung by legacy systems, fragmented data, and intensifying cyber risk. It is a familiar paradox for CISOs: record spending on innovation yet growing unease that resilience isn't keeping pace. Cybersecurity sits at the very top of industry concern, with 79% of f
Credit rating company TransUnion has suffered a data breach, which has impacted the personal information of nearly 4.5 million Americans. The firm revealed that unauthorized access was gained to a third-party application serving its US consumer support operations in a notification letter to impacted customers. The information was limited to specific data elements and did not include credit reports or core credit information.
TransUnion has not publicly provided any more details on the nature o
