Fraud used to be understood as a technical problem, something that happened to systems. The trends defining 2026 point somewhere else entirely, toward the people who operate those systems.
Angie Young, Vice President of Financial Crimes at Midwest BankCentre, describes two types of fraud showing up more frequently and what they have in common.
Two Trends Worth Knowing
Both of these work by getting a person to take an action, rather than by breaking through a technical defense:
- Business email compromise, where criminals impersonate executives or vendors and convince employees to change payment information so funds are routed to a fraudulent account
- Account takeover, where a criminal convinces a customer to hand over sensitive online banking information and gains unfettered access to their accounts
In neither case did anyone break in. In both cases, someone was persuaded to open the door.
Manipulating People, Not Systems
What makes fraud different today is that it is about more than hacking systems. It is about manipulating people and manipulating trust. That shift matters, because it changes where the defense has to live. The strongest technical controls in the world do not help if the person holding the credentials is convinced to use them on a criminal’s behalf.
It also means awareness is genuinely protective. Knowing how these schemes are constructed is often enough to recognize one in progress.
Angie also covers steps businesses can take to reduce fraud risk and how voice cloning scams work.
If you have any questions, give us a call, visit us at one of our branches, or visit our fraud resource center. Your financial safety is important to us.