Scammers manipulate their victims more

While warnings and fraud protection tools are increasing, the methods used by scammers are also evolving, aided by artificial intelligence to achieve illicit enrichment at the expense of defrauded victims. Experts from VÚB Bank and the cybersecurity company ESET have mapped out the current most common types of fraud, where clients lose the most money, what new threats are emerging, and how to defend against them.

"This year confirms that scammers are changing their tactics, shifting from data theft to client manipulation. Persuading a client to send money is often easier than breaking through security mechanisms. That is why the significance and number of investment scams, fake phone calls, and NFC attacks based on victim manipulation are growing," says Juraj Praženka from the Fraud Prevention Department at VÚB Bank.

Furthermore, these types of scams are harder for banks to detect, especially when defrauded and manipulated clients conceal their actions and reasoning from the bank.

VÚB Bank's data shows that the number of transaction frauds remains high. Despite alerts and warnings, clients still fall prey to scammers posing as bankers, police officers, financial administration representatives, or family members in need. Criminals use SMS, emails, phone calls, social media, and increasingly AI tools to reach potential victims, allowing them to be more persuasive.

The 61+ age group is most at risk

The age of defrauded individuals continues to rise. While in 2025 VÚB Bank's statistics showed the highest number of defrauded people in the 61–66 age category, this year the 67–71 age group has nearly caught up in terms of the number of scams. The Baby Boomers generation (61+) is thus the most affected by fraud.

"Older people often have savings as well as uncritical trust in technology and online content. This makes it easier for criminals to manipulate them," notes Juraj Praženka.

In terms of fraud types, fake investments heavily dominate by case volume, with older people being more susceptible (the average age of those defrauded is 63). On average, scammers obtain just over two thousand euros per victim this way, but due to the high volume of cases, this type of fraud also accounts for the highest total financial loss for clients. Manipulated clients even lie to the bank when verifying payments.

In terms of damage per individual case, fraudulent phone calls top the list—on average, a fake "police officer" or "NBS (National Bank of Slovakia) employee" defrauded a victim of over 7,250 euros this year. The highest individual loss even reached 115,000 euros.

A novelty from last year, NFC tunneling (transferring a card via an NFC chip and subsequent unauthorized ATM withdrawals), is also growing in popularity. Scammers often use the payout of investment returns as a pretext.

Sextortion, investment scams, phishing of all kinds

The attack scheme does not have to be complex at all—on the contrary. Even extremely simple scams, such as deceptive emails that trick only a minimal percentage of people, can cause millions in damages if sent in a large enough volume.

An example is sextortion messages, which almost every Slovak has likely received in their inbox. Attackers claim that the victim's device is infected with malware, allowing them to monitor everything they do and even activate their webcam. The recipient is then blackmailed into paying thousands of euros in Bitcoins to prevent the release of compromising video material allegedly captured this way.

"It is a simple lie that only a minimal number of people believe. However, as our research shows, if you send it to millions of people worldwide, millions can easily accumulate in crypto wallets," says Ondrej Kubovič, a digital security specialist at ESET, regarding recent findings.

From a selected sample of 3.5 million malicious emails worldwide collected by ESET between March and August 2026, analysts managed to retrieve thousands of Bitcoin addresses used by scammers for extortion purposes since at least 2017. Approximately one thousand of these "virtual wallets" saw transactions totaling 321 Bitcoins over this period (2017–2026)—which, by a conservative estimate, amounts to approximately 3.5 million EUR.

The volume of sextortion emails in ESET telemetry fluctuates, but between the first (H1) and second half (H2) of 2026 alone, there was a 36% increase. If this trend continues until the end of the year, the number of these messages could jump by up to 170%.

Sextortion emails are not counted under the phishing category—the effort to extract sensitive login or payment details from you—which accounts for every fifth threat recorded in ESET telemetry. This area includes not only malicious emails or chat messages but also fraudulent QR codes or SMS phishing (smishing).

Furthermore, phishing is often combined with a much more insidious and dangerous threat: Trojan horses. One example actively targeting users in Central Europe and Slovakia is CloudEyE.

"CloudEyE is an extremely active threat whose main task is to smuggle and mask malicious code that installs additional malware on the victim's device. In the first six months of 2026 alone, CloudEyE grew by nearly 190% and continues to bombard Slovaks' devices with its campaigns. Its creators provide services via subscription, mainly to infostealer developers. To get infected, a victim only needs to open a fake invoice or respond to a highly sophisticated phishing email from a familiar address," explained Ondrej Kubovič.

Investment scams are also worth noting, as they frequently use deepfake audio or video, detected by ESET under the name Nomani. This year alone, the company blocked nearly 50,000 URLs linked to campaigns of this type spreading en masse on social media. The scammers behind them use AI not only to create the bait but also to constantly generate new fake sites of non-existent investment platforms and believable reviews for them.

Nomani saw its sharpest growth of 113% in ESET telemetry between 2024 and 2025, though the intensity of the campaigns decreased last year. However, the summer months (from June) are clearly favoring scammers again, and if their activity remains at this level until December, the estimated half-year growth in detections will be around 30%.

AI as the future—even for scams?

Artificial intelligence tools can take scams to a new level. This can involve mimicking a family member's voice (voice cloning), creating convincing fake documents, or deepfake videos designed to induce the victim to send money or promise lucrative investments. People should be increasingly vigilant and utilize technological options to protect themselves against attacks.

How to protect your digital security in the AI era

• Protect your devices with a multi-layered security solution.
• Pause before you click or download anything.
• Check the link you received.
• Verify the credibility of the message through other channels.
• Ensure a secure Wi-Fi connection.
• Regularly update your operating system and security applications.
• Use strong passwords and passkeys.

How to resist scammers

• Never send money based on a phone call, SMS, or WhatsApp message without thorough verification.
• Do not install remote access applications or other unknown programs on your phone or PC.
• Do not act under time pressure. Consult with your family, acquaintances, or bank.
• Always verify information when requested to change an account number or make an urgent payment. This applies especially to corporate payments and invoices.
• Verify information and apply critical thinking (if it is too good to be true, it is almost certainly a scam).
• Always read authorization SMS / push notifications coming from the bank.
• Never disclose login credentials, authorization codes, or payment card details. The bank will never ask for them by phone or email.
• If you have any suspicion, contact the bank immediately via the Contact Center.