Damage caused by fake president fraud multiplies
Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing into the hands of white-collar criminals: they are becoming more professional, striking more often - and causing ever greater financial damage to companies. According to the latest statistics from Allianz Trade, damage to companies caused by all social engineering scams has risen by 60 %.
The latest loss statistics from Allianz Trade reveal a clear risk trend: in 2024, financial losses caused by fake resident fraud scams tripled (+200 %), in 2025 they rose by a further 81% - despite a decline in the number of cases. Order fraud is also experiencing a renaissance: with a 139% increase in losses and 61% more cases, this scam has replaced payment fraud as the most common form of social engineering.
Professionalized offenders thanks to AI
«We are seeing a highly dynamic cat-and-mouse game between attackers and companies,» explains Marie-Christine Kragh, Global Head of Fidelity at Allianz Trade. «Thanks to generative AI, fraud attempts are now reaching a level of perfection that leaves little room for doubt, even among trained employees.»
Flawless emails, deceptively genuine deepfake videos and realistic-sounding voice imitations significantly increase the success rate. According to Allianz Trade, the average losses are in the single-digit million range; individual cases reach double-digit millions.
Double strike at the touch of a button: phishing meets social engineering
The barriers to entry for cyber criminals are also falling. «Many perpetrators today hardly need any IT skills,» says Dirk Koch, Certified Ethical Hacker and partner at law firm ByteLaw. «Phishing and vishing tools are cheaply available on the darknet - a combination of technologically supported initial access and manipulative connection communication is often enough to paralyze a company.» Koch speaks of a «checkmate in two moves»: First the compromised system access, then the targeted attack on decision-making and payment processes.
Domestic offenders remain the greatest risk
In addition to external attacks, the threat from within the company is growing. According to Allianz Trade, 65 percent of the largest financial losses in 2025 were caused by internal cases. «The majority of losses can be traced back to employees - an uncomfortable but central truth,» says Kragh. The growing creativity is striking: from misappropriated luxury goods to internal «shop-in-shop» systems.
Prevention: Multi-level security architecture required
For CFOs and those responsible for security, there is a clear need for action. Koch recommends a combination of technical, organizational and cultural lines of defence:
Technical basis: Phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, verified email signatures, AI-based filters and zero-trust architectures.
Organizational measures: consistent Four-eyes principle, out-of-band confirmations for payment data changes, continuous process analyses.
Responsiveness: Fast incident response structures to enable amounts to be recovered at all.
People as the most critical factor
Despite all the technology, humans remain the central weak point. Social engineering attacks specifically target emotions - authority, pressure or artificially created crisis situations. «The combination of time pressure, emotional triggers and requests to break the rules should set alarm bells ringing,» warns Kragh. An open error culture and clear lines of communication between employees and managers are considered to be the most effective levers for exposing attempts at manipulation at an early stage.
Source: Allianz Trade
