Over USD 442 billion has been siphoned off from the global economy in 2025 through financial fraud, Interpol said in its global financial fraud threat assessment for 2026, released on Monday.
The report kept the overall global risk related to financial fraud at “high”.
Scamsters are leveraging agentic artificial intelligence (AI), which can “autonomously plan and execute complete fraud campaigns — from reconnaissance to ransom demands”, the Lyon-based global police cooperation body said.
The second edition of the report, released Monday, warned that AI-enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods, as agentic AI systems are now capable of autonomously planning and executing complete fraud campaigns — from reconnaissance to ransom demands, making them a force multiplier.
From harvesting victim credentials to generating psychologically tailored ransom notes, fraudsters have used “deepfake audio” to mimic the voices of corporate executives during real-time pho