An AFP survey found 76% of U.S. organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2025, with business email compromise (BEC) reported by 74%. The release also says only 17% of organizations use AI to combat payments fraud, even as attacks remain widespread.

A new survey released through PR Newswire (from the Association for Financial Professionals, AFP) indicates that payments fraud remains highly prevalent across the U.S. According to the findings, 76% of U.S. organizations reported experiencing attempted or actual payments fraud during 2025. The survey further highlights business email compromise (BEC) as a dominant channel, with 74% of organizations reporting BEC exposure. The release emphasizes that despite the frequency and financial impact of these fraud attempts, many firms are not relying on AI-driven defenses at scale—only 17% say they use AI to combat payments fraud. The results point to ongoing gaps in fraud mitigation capabilities, especially in areas such as deepfake detection and smarter identification of social-engineering signals used to impersonate executives, vendors, or internal contacts. For risk and finance teams, the data suggests a continued need to strengthen controls around payment authorization workflows, validate changes to payee details through out-of-band verification, and improve detection processes that can flag impersonation patterns before funds are released.