Phishing Drove 73.2% of Global Fraud Incidents in 2025, According to New Fraud Beat Report

-360 Fraud Protection by AppGate, a leader in end-to-end digital fraud prevention, today released Fraud Beat 2026: The Industrialization of Digital Fraud — From Social Exposure to Cash-Out, revealing that phishing accounted for 73.2% of global fraud incidents in 2025, according to intelligence from AppGate’s Guardian Fusion Center.

“Fraud is no longer a series of isolated events—it is an industrialized system operating across the entire digital journey.”

The report finds that fraud has evolved beyond isolated attacks into a coordinated, scalable operating model—one that begins with external exposure and social engineering, progresses through credential compromise and account takeover, and ends in increasingly efficient cash-out.

Drawing on intelligence from AppGate’s Guardian Fusion Center, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report, Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report, Juniper Research, and Alloy, the report shows how social-first scams, impersonation attacks, and automation are driving a new era of industrialized fraud.

As part of the report, 360 Fraud Protection introduces the Fraud Industrialization Stack, a new framework that organizes fraud into four interconnected layers:

• External Exposure — social impersonation, phishing, brand abuse, and scam infrastructure
• Identity Capture — credential theft, social engineering, and account compromise
• Account and Session Control — takeover, device abuse, and transaction manipulation
• Cash-Out — monetization through fraud payments, mule networks, and high-velocity extraction

The framework highlights why siloed, point-based defenses are increasingly ineffective against attackers operating across the full fraud chain.

“Fraud is no longer a series of isolated events—it is an industrialized system operating across the entire digital journey,” said Mike Lopez, SVP of Fraud Solutions at 360 Fraud Protection by AppGate. “With Fraud Beat 2026, we’re giving fraud, risk and security leaders a common language—and a measurable framework—to align defenses with how attackers actually operate, reducing losses without adding unnecessary customer friction.”

Key Findings from Fraud Beat 2026

The report identifies several major trends reshaping the fraud landscape:

• Latin America saw phishing surge up to 228% year-over-year across the region’s 10 most-targeted countries, fueled by widespread brand impersonation. (AppGate Guardian Fusion Center)
• Unauthorized trademark abuse in Asia-Pacific grew 53% year-over-year, the fastest-growing attack vector in the region. (AppGate Guardian Fusion Center)
• Social platforms have become the primary fraud funnel, with scams and impersonation representing 86% of confirmed social threats; financial institutions accounted for 35.5% of targeted attacks. (APWG Q4 2025)
• Wire-transfer business email compromise (BEC) surged 136% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 2025, with an average requested amount of $50,297. (APWG)
• Every $1 in direct fraud loss creates $5.16 in total impact for lending institutions when recovery, chargebacks, churn and operational costs are included. (Alloy)
• Global fraud detection and prevention spending is projected to grow 85%, from $21 billion in 2025 to $39 billion by 2030, as organizations invest in continuous risk assessment and AI-driven decisioning. (Juniper Research)

“Organizations succeeding against industrialized fraud are not simply layering more tools,” Lopez added. “They are building control systems that disrupt attacks earlier, assess risk continuously, apply friction only when necessary, and automate response at scale. That is the design philosophy behind 360 Fraud Protection.”