Investment scams, including those targeting cryptocurrency and stock market participants, have become the single most commonly reported form of authorized push payment (APP) fraud, outpacing every other fraud category tracked in a new industry report released today (Wednesday).The finding comes from Nasdaq Verafin's 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, which surveyed 505 anti-financial crime professionals worldwide. When asked which types of APP fraud were generating the greatest increase in customer attacks, 62% of respondents pointed to investment scams, nearly 15 percentage points above the next-closest categories, business email compromise and confidence scams, each cited by 48% of participants. Romance baiting came in at 36%, and pig butchering at 28%.That result sits inside a broader surge in scam activity. Global losses from fraud scams reached $62 billion in 2025, the report said, growing at a compound annual rate of 19.3% over the past two years, more than double the 8.2% annualized growth rate recorded for traditional bank fraud schemes."We are currently in the midst of a full-blown financial crime crisis, powered by criminal networks that are leveraging AI to super-charge scam playbooks and operating with the scale and coordination of multinational corporations," said Stephanie Champion, Executive Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Verafin.Investment Scams Pull Ahead of Every Other Fraud CategoryAPP fraud, where victims are deceived or manipulated into authorizing transfers to criminals, has become a primary target as banks have strengthened internal controls. As institutions tighten defenses at the institutional level, the report argues, criminal networks have pivoted to targeting customers directly through social engineering, taking the path of least resistance.The mechanics behind investment scams follow a recognizable pattern. Fraudsters present fabricated profit statements, fake brokerage dashboards, and manufactured performance records to convince victims to commit funds to stocks, commodities, digital assets, or real estate. The investment is either nonexistent or worthless, according to the report, and perpetrators eventually cut contact once they have the funds.Nearly three-quarters of the professionals surveyed - 72% - said APP fraud volumes increased at their institutions over the past year, with only 7% reporting a decline. More than half cited APP fraud as a major industry threat, and nearly three-quarters reported an increase in such attacks since 2024. Earlier analysis from FinanceMagnates.com showed how trading platform impersonation scams exploded 1,400% year-over-year as criminals leveraged AI and phishing-as-a-service tools to run fraud at scale, a trend the Nasdaq Verafin data now confirms at the macro level.AI Turns Fraud Into a Production LineWhat's accelerating the threat is not just scale, it's automation. The report identifies two emerging models that the company says are reshaping the fraud landscape: scams-as-a-service, where successful fraud infrastructures are packaged and sold to other criminal operators, enabling high-volume attacks from parties with minimal technical expertise; and AI-enabled hyper scams, where generative AI and deepfakes are used to produce more convincing, personalized pitches at machine speed."The ability to develop scams leveraging AI and other technology-based solutions has really created an epidemic for us," one unnamed industry executive said in the report's interview series.Ninety percent of respondents reported an increase in AI-driven attacks at their institution over the past two years, according to the report. More than half described the increase as significant or exponential. Criminal origination has shifted away from individual email inboxes and scaled across social media platforms, with funds typically moved via instant payment rails before victims realize what has happened, Nasdaq Verafin said. Jorij Abraham, Managing Director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), who contributed to the report, put the dynamic plainly: "Scammers are using AI the same way legitimate businesses do to work faster, cheaper, and at scale."North American regulators have been tracking this pattern closely. The North American Securities Administrators Association previously flagged AI-generated investment content and deepfake celebrity endorsements as top threats to retail investors, noting that more than 32% of reported fraud was already targeting investors through social media platforms.Cyber-Enabled Fraud Adds Another $14 Billion to the BillSeparate from investment scams but closely entangled, cyber-enabled fraud - covering business email compromise, phishing, and data breaches - accounted for $14.3 billion in global losses in 2025, growing at 19.6% annually, the report said. The Americas bore the largest regional share at $7.75 billion, with BEC alone generating $5.37 billion in the region. Cyber-enabled crime was ranked by respondents as the top financial crime threat facing their customers, ahead of APP scams and money mule activity.Regulators have struggled to match the pace of the threat. IOSCO has been pressing RegTech solutions against what it estimates to be a $17 billion AI-driven crime wave, but industry participants in the Nasdaq Verafin survey say that official guidance on AI use for detection purposes has been slow to materialize."We need more guidance and clear guidance to help drive us into this new world of AI...I think the criminals are winning the arms race because of the lack of regulatory action," a Chief BSA/AML and Sanctions Compliance Officer at a North American regional bank told the report's researchers.Cryptocurrency continues to feature prominently in how fraud proceeds move. In the UK, crypto fraud has risen to the top of the regulatory agenda as mounting losses spur new legislative strategy, a trend mirrored globally in the report's data, where 53% of AML professionals ranked laundering through crypto assets as their second-highest money laundering concern.Americas Drive the Fastest Growth in Fraud LossesRegionally, the Asia-Pacific region recorded the largest absolute fraud losses at $235 billion, though its 3% compound annual growth rate was the slowest of any region. The Americas followed with $211.5 billion in total fraud losses but posted the fastest growth at 18.3% annually. EMEA logged $132.9 billion, led by account-to-account payment fraud in the EU.The U.S. picture is particularly acute. American consumers and businesses absorbed $17.47 billion in fraud scam losses in 2025, growing at 24% annually - above the regional average. Business email compromise reached $4.76 billion in the U.S. alone, while employment fraud climbed 30% annually to $1.72 billion.The experience in Asia reinforces the investment scam narrative. Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has repeatedly warned about fraudsters luring investors into manipulated trading environments through fabricated credentials and manufactured performance records - matching the typology that Nasdaq Verafin respondents ranked as their top concern. Singapore has also recorded a 61% surge in cyber scams, with global task forces flagging it as a critical node in transnational scam networks. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

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