Employment scams are surging at financial institutions. Data from BioCatch, drawn from reports filed by more than 370 banks and financial firms in 21 countries, shows reported victims more than tripled over the past 12 months, a 258% increase that outran every other scam type. Total reported scams across the same institutions grew 35%. Nine of every 10 scam sessions now start on a mobile device, compared with 75% for traditional unauthorized fraud.
Investment scams remain the costliest, averaging $6,600 per case, nearly five times the average across all scam types. Purchase scams were the most common, accounting for almost one-third of cases, but carried the lowest average value in all four regions studied. Romance scams grew the slowest at 23% and, outside Latin America, tended to run the longest. The researchers also walked through a 15-minute scam session, noting warning signs such as an active phone call, remote access software, and account numbers typed in three-digit groups, a pattern consistent with someone reading numbers aloud.
Erin West, a former prosecutor who founded Operation Shamrock, warns that scam compound networks are already established in Nigeria, citing a December 2024 raid that arrested 792 people, including 148 Chinese nationals. She also highlights financial sextortion, in which scammers coerce boys, usually aged 13 to 17, into sending compromising photos and then demand small payments. FinCEN has counted at least 36 U.S. teenagers who died by suicide since 2021 in linked cases, and NCMEC now logs 137 reports of financial sextortion daily. West argues banks should watch receiving accounts as closely as sending ones, pointing to a case where a Nigerian investigator traced a $50,000 pig-butchering loss through five bank accounts to two trucks purchased with the proceeds.