Fraud vs Phishing

Fewer than 40% of internal audit leaders believe their internal audit function is adequately prepared to detect AI-enabled fraud.

58% of internal audit leaders view AI-enabled fraud as a moderate risk.

40% of internal audit functions support awareness or training initiatives related to AI-enabled fraud.

38% of internal audit functions test or strengthen fraud prevention and detection.

45% of internal audit leaders identify deepfake audio or video impersonation as a leading AI-enabled fraud threat.

29% of internal audit leaders are concerned about forged contracts or legal documents created using AI.

55% of internal audit leaders identify insufficient staff with relevant skills or expertise as a primary barrier to improving AI-enabled fraud preparedness.

43% of internal audit leaders cite competing organizational priorities as a barrier to AI-specific risk management efforts.

43% of internal audit leaders cite insufficient time to dedicate to AI-specific risk management efforts.

65% of internal audit leaders identify fabricated invoices or financial documents as a leading AI-enabled fraud threat.

41% of internal audit leaders are concerned about the use of AI to insert malicious code.

27% of internal audit leaders view AI-enabled fraud as a high risk.

57% of internal audit functions currently assess control weaknesses that enable fraud.

26% of internal audit functions investigate and document AI's role in fraud incidents.

58% of internal audit leaders identify automated social engineering as a leading AI-enabled fraud threat.

88% of internal audit leaders identify AI-powered phishing attacks as a top risk.

51% of organizations have faced sophisticated, personalized phishing emails powered by deepfake technology.

In Q4 2025, callback phishing increased from 3% to 18% of all phishing incidents, a 500% spike.

82% of malicious files have unique hashes that traditional pattern-matching fails to detect.

Credential phishing campaigns using .es domains increase 51 times year-over-year, with the .es top-level domain jumping from the 56th to the 3rd most-abused TLD.

76% of initial infection URLs in abalyzed phishing attacks were unique and have not appeared in other campaigns across Cofense's customer base.

Conversational attacks comprise 18% of all malicious emails.

In 2025, a malicious email attack occurs every 19 seconds, more than doubling from 2024’s pace of one every 42 seconds.

Abuse of legitimate remote access tools increased by 900% by volume.

Fifty percent of affected consumers cite immediate financial fraud as their primary fear, and 54 percent of consumers report an increase in targeted phishing attempts after a breach (2025)

Eighty-eight percent of consumers who received a data breach notice experience at least one negative consequence after a breach; 40 percent experience an increase in phishing or scam attempts; 49 percent experience an increase in spam emails or robocalls; 40 percent experience attempted takeover of an existing account (2025)

Clicks on phishing links decreased by 27%, from 119 per 10,000 users last year to 87 per 10,000 users this year.

87 out of every 10,000 users clicked on a phishing link each month in 2025.

77% of advanced email attacks failed SPF, DKIM, or DMARC authentication yet still reached inboxes.

Approximately 45% of advanced email attacks showed indicators of AI assistance, projected to rise to 75–95% within the next 18 months