A new report by Alloy has revealed growing anxiety among U.S. consumers about the impact of AI on financial scams, with 85% fearing that AI has made fraud harder to detect.
The 2025 State of Scams Report, based on a Harris Poll survey of 2,000 American consumers, highlights both heightened concern and rising expectations for banks to adopt advanced AI-powered fraud prevention tools.
According to the findings, 66% of consumers say they are more likely to choose a financial institution that uses AI protection measures. Nearly all respondents (97%) identified fraud prevention and security as the most important factor when selecting a financial institution.
The report outlines key areas of consumer concern, with AI-driven bank impersonation topping the list at 28%, followed by voice cloning scams (21%) and synthetic identity fraud (18%). The data also shows that scams have become increasingly personal—62% of respondents said they or someone they know had been a victim of a scam. More than a quarter (28%) reported losing money due to fraudulent activity, with 21% of those victims losing $5,000 or more. Emotional distress was cited by 29% as the most severe consequence of being scammed.
Alloy strategic adviser Sara Seguin said, “The data confirms what we’re seeing on the ground: AI hasn’t made fraudsters more sophisticated, it’s made them more efficient. A single criminal can now launch thousands of personalized attacks in minutes. But here’s what’s fascinating: consumers get it. They’re demanding banks use the same AI technologies to protect them.”
The report also found that consumers increasingly hold financial institutions accountable for losses. Two-thirds (67%) said banks should reimburse money lost to scams even if the transaction was authorised, with younger generations showing stronger expectations—73% among Gen Z and Millennials compared to 62% of Gen X and Boomers.
Despite growing concerns over data privacy, 69% of Americans said they would be willing to trade some personal privacy for AI-powered scam protection. Moreover, 87% said they would lose trust in their bank if it failed to notify them of attempted scams.
Commenting on the report, Datos Insights strategic advisor Trace Fooshée said, “As fraudsters’ use of AI tools accelerates, the scope and scale of authorised payment scams edge closer to a tipping point that threatens to upend the trust relationship across the whole financial system. As this stark reality settles in, financial institutions are racing to adjust their standards of care and investment priorities to amplify their use of AI tools and to reinvent a more deliberate and collaborative approach to managing and improving customer safety.”
The findings align with research from the Aspen Institute’s National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention, which found that the majority of Americans receive scam communications weekly, and more than 50m adults have lost money to an online scam or cyberattack.
Keep up with all the latest RegTech news here
Copyright © 2025 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
