Dive Brief:
- The amount of money stolen by scammers and fraudsters last year rose 9.2% across the globe compared to two years ago, an increase driven largely by criminals leveraging artificial intelligence, according to Nasdaq’s Verafin unit.
- The organization — a division of Nasdaq that provides security services to financial institutions — recorded $579.4 billion lost to bank fraud and scams in 2025, an increase of $53.3 billion from 2023, the last time Nasdaq Verafin tallied worldwide fraud and scams, according to the unit’s 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, published Wednesday.
- “While it’s hard to put a number on it, we see AI in everything the day-to-day fraudsters are doing,” said Nasdaq Verafin’s head of fraud product strategy, Colin Parsons, said during a Wednesday Payments Dive virtual event panel discussion.
Dive Insight:
The report from Nasdaq’s Verafin unit said $62…
CLICK HERE to read the FULL AI drives global fraud surge | Payments Dive article.
THE TD BANK INSIDER “BRIBE-FOR-DATA” SCHEME (USA)
Date: February 17, 2026 Perpetrator: Edward Low (Former Bank Employee)
Case Description: In a high-profile case of “Insider Threat,” Edward Low, a former employee of TD Bank in New York, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to accepting bribes in exchange for confidential customer data. Between 2021 and 2022, Low leveraged his internal access to harvest the personal details of high-balance account holders. He then sold this “hot data” to external fraud syndicates for as little as $26,700 in personal kickbacks.
The external fraudsters used the information Low provided to conduct “Account Takeovers” (ATO), creating fraudulent checks and falsifying bank records to drain over $500,000 from unsuspecting customers. Low even went as far as helping co-conspirators open shell company accounts at a second financial institution where he was later employed. He now faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. This case has sent shockwaves through the global banking sector, highlighting that even the most robust external firewalls cannot protect against a “rogue insider” with administrative credentials.
Link to Original: US Dept of Justice – TD Bank Insider Plea