BioCatch report: 2025 Digital Banking Fraud Trends in Australia
Inside BioCatch Trust, the world’s first real-time, behavior-based network for sharing financial crime intelligence, plus insights on the shifting fraud landscape in Australia
Our 2025 Digital Banking Fraud Trends in Australia report highlights the success of BioCatch Trust™, the world’s first real-time, behavior-based, inter-bank network for sharing financial crime intelligence — now protecting more than 85% of Australia’s banked population. Launched a year ago with five Australian banks (including four of the nation’s largest), BioCatch Trust enables participating institutions to share risk signals instantly. When the network flags suspicious behavior in a receiving account, it alerts the sending bank in real time, allowing the transaction to be paused and investigated before any funds leave the customer’s account.
The report also provides a comprehensive look at Australia’s shifting threat landscape and emerging banking fraud trends, offering insights to strengthen your defenses.
In this report, you’ll discover:
- Intel-sharing makes an impact: BioCatch Trust analyzed more than $60 million in fraudulent payment attempts between July and September, uncovering up to 30% of social engineering scams that had previously gone undetected. In more than 70% of transactions, the network reliably retrieves the beneficiary’s user profile, helping banks identify potential bad actors.
- Social engineering attempts decrease but remain dominant: Despite an 8.1% drop in social-engineering scam attempts reported by Australian BioCatch customers in 2025, this scam type remains the country’s most prevalent, with phone and purchase scams leading the way.
- Account takeover (ATO) activity surges: ATO activity spiked in late 2024 before returning to more typical levels in 2025. Despite this stabilization, case volumes in the second half of 2025 are still more than double those in the first half, underscoring sustained pressure from organized criminal groups. Overall, reported ATO attempts rose 47% year over year.
- Money mule and remote access tool (RAT) activity declines: Money mule activity fell by roughly 20% among Australian banks using BioCatch solutions in 2025, indicating early signs that stronger controls and coordinated disruption efforts are gaining traction. RAT activity also declined by about 20%, suggesting attackers may be shifting towards more scalable, social-engineering–driven approaches.
Download the full report for deeper insights into emerging fraud trends, BioCatch Trust, and how to strengthen your defenses.