{
  "id": 10476835,
  "title": "Fraud Trends Put Fragmented Defenses Under Pressure",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/fraud-trends-put-fragmented-defenses-under-pressure",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-28T15:21:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PYMNTS",
    "slug": "pymnts",
    "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2026/fraud-trends-put-fragmented-defenses-under-pressure/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new report from PYMNTS Intelligence highlights the growing challenges faced by banks as fraudsters increasingly employ longer-running scams that can take days or weeks to complete, rather than immediate transactions. The findings show that 43% of scam victims pay fraudsters within an hour, while 18% take at least two weeks. The slower-paying scams, particularly romance and investment scams, involve much larger losses - $27,587 for romance scams and $35,272 for travel scams, compared to $14,225 for investment scams. During the period between initial contact and payment, banks can sometimes observe victims accumulating funds through various financial means, but this window is much longer for these more complex scams. This gives banks more opportunities to analyze customer behavior and link disparate data points before the final payment is made. However, the report also reveals that many victims do not report their scams, with 11% remaining silent, up 26% from the previous year. Among those who do not report, 28% are unaware that reporting is an option, and 18% lack clear guidance on how to report. This lack of reporting contributes to fragmented defenses against fraud, as banks, platforms, and law enforcement may hold separate pieces of information generated by organized scam operations. To address this fragmentation, banks must develop escalation procedures that bring together activity across different accounts and products for review before completing large or atypical payments. Additionally, establishing ways to quickly exchange relevant account identifiers, transaction patterns, and other fraud indicators between organizations is crucial in identifying connections across cases.",
  "summary": "The 43% of scam victims who pay fraudsters within an hour present banks with an obvious problem. There may be almost no time to stop the transaction. The 18% who take at least two weeks present a different one. The findings, conveyed in the September PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud’s Loyalty Tax: How Scams Cost Banks […] The post Fraud Trends Put Fragmented Defenses Under Pressure appeared…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}