95% of those surveyed admit struggling to detect and report social media micro-scams
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (April 8, 2026) — In a new survey of fraud-management, anti-money laundering (AML), and compliance team leaders at banks in the United Arab Emirates, 58% of respondents reported increasing fraud losses at their institution, while 62% estimated their organization’s annual fraud losses exceeded 18.3 million UAE dirhams ($5 million U.S. dollars). Nearly all (95%) of those surveyed recognized social media micro-scams as a growing detection and reporting challenge.
“While banks here in the UAE appear ahead of their counterparts in most other countries when it comes to investing in advanced authentication, machine learning, and behavioral biometrics, the widespread adoption of real-time payments has created new opportunities for fraudsters,” BioCatch Director of Global Fraud Intelligence Thomas Peacock said. “Social media micro-scams represent a growing pain point for UAE banks, especially for those cases involving expatriate customers without long local banking histories.”
The survey was commissioned by BioCatch, which prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior. Despite increasing fraud attempts and losses, UAE banking leaders expressed great confidence in their existing fraud defenses, with 83% of respondents rating current controls as either effective or very effective — greater than both the regional and global average. And yet, 77% said their organization was actively exploring new vendors and/or solution enhancements.
Other key findings:
Rapid response time: More than two-fifths (41%) of UAE banking leaders said their institution fully investigates fraud causes within one day, placing the country well ahead of the global average (26%).
Minimal reimbursement: UAE financial institutions appear less likely to reimburse customers for scam losses than their counterparts in both neighboring countries and elsewhere in the world, with just 26% of respondents indicating their org reimburses more than half of scam victims.
Behavior valued: Nearly three-fourths (76%) of respondents say their bank is either actively using a behavioral solution or evaluating the possibility of incorporating one.
Reputation over finances: A full three-fourths of respondents ranked the reputational risk of fraud and scams as a greater concern than any financial impact.
Download the report to view the complete results.
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About BioCatch:
BioCatch prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, continuously collecting more than 3,000 anonymized data points — keystroke and mouse activity, touch screen behavior, AI agent usage, jailbroken devices, and more — as people interact with their digital banking platforms. With these inputs, BioCatch's AI and machine-learning models continuously assess both user intent and any signs of coercion or manipulation throughout every millisecond of every digital banking session, allowing banks to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate in real time. Insights drawn from across the entire network of BioCatch institutions further amplify the power and accuracy of that real-time risk-scoring. As of the end of Q1 2026, more than 30 of the world's largest 100 banks and 359 total financial institutions deploy BioCatch solutions, analyzing 18 billion user sessions per month and protecting more than 680 million accounts accessed from more than 1.7 billion devices around the world from fraud and financial crime.
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PR contact:
Mac King
BioCatch director of global marketing communications
Mac.King@BioCatch.com