It Can Happen to Anyone: Staying Safe from Cyber-Enabled Fraud in 2025
Picture this: you’re scrolling through social media, heart warmed by a sweet message from a new love interest; or, you receive an unexpected call with a desperate plea from your spouse, your child, or your parents who needs money fast. It feels personal, urgent — and that’s exactly the point.
By the time you realize something’s off, a fake profile or fabricated crisis has already siphoned your savings and shattered your trust.
Welcome to 2025, where cyber-enabled fraud has become more persuasive, more profitable, and more devastating than ever before.
Staying informed isn’t just smart — it’s an essential line of defense against criminals who prey on our hopes, fears, and compassion.
Weaponizing Your Humanity
At the core of a successful scam is the expert use of emotional manipulation to get a target to do something that is in the interest of a criminal.
Whether it’s a phishing e-mail, a Facebook marketplace ad, an unexpected text message from a stranger, these criminals seek to use our human emotions and the way we make decisions in emotionally charged moments against us.
One of the more disturbing trends is the rise of romance baiting scams. These schemes often begin on social media or dating apps, where criminals pose as potential romantic interests. Over time, they build an emotional connection to coax victims into sending money or investing in fraudulent ventures — often cryptocurrency.
The heartbreak of discovering you’ve been deceived can be devastating, not just financially but emotionally.
Cryptocurrency tracking firm Chain Analysis estimated that there was up to $12.4 billion in fraud using digital currencies such as Bitcoin in 2024. Romance-baiting scams accounted for a third of that amount, or more than $4 billion; that’s up 40% from 2023.
That’s more than four times the total global amount extorted from businesses in ransomware attacks.
Beware of Optimism Bias
Optimism bias – a powerful inherent psychological trait that most people have to some extent – works against us when it comes to how we think about cyber-enabled fraud.
Optimism bias is the propensity to think that bad things are more likely to happen to someone else, but not to us as individuals. In Beauceron Security’s research, those who believe they aren’t a target for online criminals have a click rate for phishing e-mails that is one-third higher than those who do believe they could be targeted.
The rise of the use of rogue or hacked artificial intelligence tools such as GhostGPT, an uncensored chatbot, has made it easier to create compelling scams. Combined with the billions of stolen data records affecting nearly every single Internet user, criminals can run more authentic scams at greater scale than ever before.
What you can do about cyber-enabled fraud
Slow Down and Verify: If you’re being contacted by a relative in distress make sure you have a way of confirming their identity that goes beyond the sound of their voice or even how they look on a video call.
Limit Information Sharing: Be cautious of what you post publicly on social media. Scammers mine details that help them craft believable stories. Be careful of how you reply to unknown contacts via text, social media or phone calls.
Don’t rely on the platforms to protect you: Facebook and other online marketplaces are more interested in profiting from these services that protecting you from fraud. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Talk about a hot deal with a friend and walk them through why it could be real or a scam.
Watch for Red Flags: Be wary of anyone pushing urgent deadlines, investment “opportunities,” or asking you to keep transactions secret. Give yourself time to calm down and then think about the ways you may be being pressured into doing something that’s not to your benefit.
Report and Support: If you or someone you know becomes a victim, report it immediately. Offer understanding and resources, not shame or blame to victims of online fraud. Falling victim to a scam doesn’t mean you are dumb; it means you are human.