Financial crime analysis · 2025
While We Watched Scams,
Fraud Networks Built Infrastructure.
The real growth in financial fraud isn’t coming from scams. It’s coming from the industrial machinery behind them.
The scale
4.1M
Fraud SARs filed in 2025
by depository institutions — the baseline from which everything below is measured
93%
of all new fraud growth is mule-related
24.6×
faster growth — mule fraud vs. non-mule fraud
1.66M
SARs attributed to receiving-side infrastructure — not attack-side
That last number is the one to sit with. 41% of all fraud volume in 2025 wasn’t about how money left — it was about where it landed. Receiving-side infrastructure. Cash-out plumbing. The part of the operation nobody’s watching closely enough.
Where attention goes vs. where growth is
Current focus
Stopping send-side attacks
Better friction at point of payment
Scam detection and interdiction
Customer authentication layers
Authorised push payment controls
Where growth is
Receiving-side infrastructure
Mule account networks scaling fast
Cash-out plumbing industrialised
Receiving-side SARs up 24.6×
1.66M SARs — landing, not leaving
We built better friction at the front door. Fraud networks built a warehouse round the back.
Fraud networks industrialised cash-out in 2025.
In 2026, the defence has to go where the growth is.
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