If the year 2024 was marked by numerous scams of all kinds, 2025 should see its share of very personalized and sophisticated scams.
This year has been marked by the emergence of new scams of all kinds, with, sometimes, a resurgence of scams that are already well known, but even better designed. Irish scam, mule scam, vital card scam, fake packages… All areas are affected and the victims are more and more numerous. Distrust is also omnipresent: on the Internet, when receiving an email or an SMS, in the street and even on the road. Over time, the French are beginning to become aware of these different cybercrime techniques and other schemes.
But in 2025, methods to steal data or steal money will be even more dangerous, sophisticated and credible. Cybersecurity experts are warning Internet users about new techniques that will spread among hackers in 2025. According to Siggi Stefnisson, CTO at Gen (world leader in consumer cybersecurity), “artificial intelligence will play a role in distorting reality, data theft will pave the way for identity theft; and scams will use more data and be hyper-personalized, thanks to the information collected after a year of hacks large scale“.
Concretely, when AI becomes so efficient that it will no longer be possible to disentangle fact from fiction, Internet users will no longer really be able to recognize and anticipate the risks of fraud. As has already been the case with SMS “Hello dad/mom, I have a problem with my cell phone”, cybercriminals will take advantage of this to use a personal or family context: it could be a resentful ex-partner who publishes photos on social networks to spread a false rumor, or more broadly, government authorities who manipulate populations with political disinformation videos. Clearly, the perpetrators of these scams will have no trouble pretending to be a loved one or a trusted company, especially since voices can also be cloned. Moreover, according to experts, data theft should also be accompanied by an increase in the number of identity thefts.
What is particularly worrying is that these scams will become hyper-personalized, human-centered, and may manipulate victims’ behavior to better deceive them via social media or messaging apps. “Thanks to these hyper-personalized and targeted methods, it will be extremely difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake.” experts warn. And that’s not all: they also predict, for 2025, an increase in banking scams with advanced techniques such as the imitation of celebrities promising a return on investment on false platforms or fake competitions.
“Cybercrime and the physical world will also come together as physical attacks increase, forcing individuals to unlock their phones and access their financial applications to transfer sums of money to accounts controlled by the attacker (. ..) This year will undoubtedly be a year of great upheaval, and it will be more necessary than ever for individuals to protect their digital lives” add the specialists.