Five emerging fraud threats have emerged that could challenge businesses and consumers in 2025, according to Experian’s annual Future of Fraud Forecast.

Half of the consumers surveyed said they are concerned about conducting activities online, and companies are most worried about cybercrime (75 percent) and GenAI fraud and deep fakes (70 percent).

Recent events have led cryptocurrency like Bitcoin to increase dramatically in value.

Experian forecasts that criminals will be more motivated to target consumers and crypto providers, leveraging tried-and-true schemes like investment and romance scams, as well as fake websites offering cryptocurrency in an attempt to swindle money from unsuspecting people hoping to ride the wave.

Companies will need to leverage robust fraud prevention measures and provide educational resources for consumers to safeguard themselves from these scams.

A fraudster’s endgame is to make off with as much money as possible, and pig butchering scams are a prime way of doing so, the report noted.

Criminals will “fatten up” their victims by enticing them over time to participate in an investment scheme and then disappear with the money, leaving their victims with significant financial losses. This requires the fraudster to build a relationship with the victim and establish trust so they can convince them to hand over their money.

While this type of scam already exists, Experian forecasts that criminals will find ways to produce results faster and in more convincing ways that will dupe people more easily and allow them to elude detection for longer.

Last year, a form of check fraud went viral on social media involving people recording themselves writing bad checks, depositing them at the ATM and withdrawing cash before the check bounced.

Some participants in this trend may not have been fully aware of the repercussions. In reality, consumers were committing check fraud by joining the bandwagon.

Experian predicts that social media users could perpetuate additional trendy financial fraud schemes with the fraudsters being everyday people instead of savvy criminals.

With the amount of personally identifiable information that healthcare companies have on consumers, Experian forecasts fraudsters will deploy large-scale password spraying cyberattacks using GenAI-created bots to attack healthcare companies at scale to gain access to a company’s systems and the personally identifiable information of employees and patients.

Password spraying, also known as credential stuffing or credential guessing, is when an attacker applies a list of commonly used passwords against a list of accounts to guess the right password.

This tactic used to be done by humans but, as technology has become more sophisticated, so have the fraudsters. These attacks can now be fueled by GenAI — making the attacks exponentially larger, faster and harder to detect.

Bot attacks are a well-known tactic used to defraud people and companies by carrying out repetitive instructions to perform a variety of fraud schemes.

A new generation of bots has emerged, known as Gen4 bots. Typically built using AI tools and trained to emulate human behavior, these bots are notoriously more difficult to detect and have the potential to bypass firewalls and security with ease.

Experian predicts that as Gen4 bot attacks grow, leveraging behavioral analytics will become table stakes for companies to identify and mitigate this type of automated fraud.

“We know technology is accelerating fraud at a rapid pace. The challenge is clear for businesses — it’s not just about mitigating risk for known threats but anticipating what’s coming next,” said Kathleen Peters, chief innovation officer for Experian North America. “Our 2025 forecast highlights the fight against fraud requires a comprehensive approach — combining advanced technology, consumer awareness and a commitment to constantly adapting to evolving threats. Businesses need to invest in innovative, multilayered fraud prevention strategies that leverage data, advanced analytics and technology to thwart risk.”