Payments get faster, fraud keeps pace

Payments fraud is a persistent thorn in the side of companies large and small. And as payment mechanisms get faster, fraudsters are keeping pace. Over three-quarters of companies queried for the Association for Financial Professionals 2026 Payments Fraud and Control Survey experienced either actual or attempted payments fraud attacks in 2025.

Ironically, while new and faster, electronic payment methods gain steam, checks continue to be the payment method most frequently impacted by fraud. Fifty-eight percent of companies surveyed dealt with check fraud in 2025. This compares to 30 percent reporting ACH debit fraud and 25 percent reporting fraud involving wire transfers.

Incidents of check fraud have been falling in recent years – in 2024 63 percent of companies reported being victims of check fraud. But back in 2016 it was 55 percent, and has been pretty much risen since then. For example, 74 percent of companies were victims of actual or attempted check frauds in 2017 and 2019.

Check fraud is prevalent because check usage remains prevalent – 87 percent of companies surveyed reported using checks in 2025.

Large and small companies, alike, vulnerable

Larger companies are more susceptible to payments fraud, but smaller companies are not that much less vulnerable. Eighty-one percent of companies with annual revenues of at least $1 billion experienced attacks compared with 61 percent of those with revenues under $1 billion.

Smaller companies experience payments fraud less frequently, but when a fraud attempt succeeds, they are far more likely to absorb the full financial loss, the survey revealed. Surprisingly, the more payment accounts a company has the less susceptible it seems to be to payment frauds. Companies with annual revenues of at least $1 billion and fewer than 26 payment accounts experienced more payments fraud than did those with annual revenues of at least $1 billion and more than 100 payment accounts (83 percent vs. 74 percent).

All is not lost, however. Three in 10 of the companies surveyed recovered more than 75 percent of funds lost to payments fraud in 2025. That was up from 22 percent in 2024. One in five companies were unable to recover any funds lost to payments frauds either year, AFP reported.

BEC big factor in fraud

So how are these frauds perpetrated? More often than not through business email compromises. BECs affected 74 percent of companies in 2025, AFP found.

Fraudsters primarily impersonate vendors or executives to request changes to payment instructions, making email the dominant channel for payments fraud regardless of company size. Various payment methods are vulnerable to BECs. Forty-nine percent of BECs in 2025 were tied to wire transfers, down from 63 percent in 2024. About a third involved ACH debits and checks.

"Additionally, 39 percent of organizations continue to receive genuine emails that have been intercepted by fraudsters," AFP wrote in its report on the survey, which was underwritten by the bank Truist.

Three in 10 companies were targeted by fraudulent phone calls and 28 percent received scam texts on company-issued mobile phones.

The second most common source of fraud (51 percent reported) involved outside individuals using tactics other than email, such as forged checks, stolen credit and debit cards, and identity fraud. Third-place standing was manipulated ACH or wire transfer instructions, which were experienced by a third of companies surveyed.

As fraudsters continue to exploit speed and scale, the challenge for businesses will be keeping security measures just as agile.

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