Stay ahead of bad actors by learning how to spot the top threats of 2026.
Fraudulent activity continues to grow more sophisticated. Whether through emails, calls or texts, scams are becoming increasingly challenging to detect as criminals evolve their tactics and employ more advanced technology to deceive their victims.
Understanding the changing fraud landscape is a key step in protecting your personal information and financial assets. If you’re concerned about your online security or want help protecting yourself from fraudulent activity, contact us.
Here are five top emerging cybersecurity scams to know about and safeguard against in 2026.
In this article:
- One-time passcode scams
- Investment scams
- Financial institution impersonation scams
- Imposter scams
- AI-fueled fraud
- Steps to help protect yourself from these scams
- Questions to discuss with us
1. One-time passcode scams
If you’ve ever logged into an online account, you’ve likely received a one-time passcode (OTP) via text message or an automated phone call to verify your identity. These passcodes offer a critical layer of protection, but they are also a prime target for fraudsters. Bad actors often trick victims into sharing these temporary codes or intercept them without the victim knowing.
While you may need to continue to use OTPs, if you receive an OTP that you did not request, contact the issuing institution directly to confirm its validity. And if someone claiming to represent your financial institution asks for your OTP, never share it.
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2. Investment scams
Investment scams have been around for a long time, but advancements in technology have made them more convincing. Promises of quick money are often a hallmark of investment scammers, who may contact you through social media, text messaging or online advertising, pressuring you to act quickly while offering vague details about returns.
Here are several emerging investment scams to watch for:
Cryptocurrency scams: Also known as “pig butchering,” scammers build trust with victims over time before convincing them to invest in fake cryptocurrency platforms, ultimately stealing their funds.
Gold bar scams: Criminals manipulate victims into believing their money isn’t safe in banks. They persuade victims to convert funds to gold and hand it over to a courier under false pretenses, disappearing with the assets.
Investment club scams: Fraudulent social media advertisements persuade people to join an “investment club” where victims are urged to purchase shares of a specific low-priced security. Once the price jumps up from these purchases, the bad actor dumps their shares for a profit. The price of the security then drops, leaving victims with losses.
“Money mule” scams: Victims unknowingly help launder money by transferring stolen or illegally obtained funds on behalf of bad actors, acting as a “mule” to hide the source from law enforcement.
3. Financial institution impersonation scams
Messages from financial institutions are often implicitly trusted by consumers — a fact that fraudsters are aware of and capitalize on. By posing as representatives from banks or other financial institutions, bad actors seek to trick victims into handing over financial assets or sensitive account access details.
Here are several emerging financial institution impersonation scams to watch for:
Anti-fraud team impersonation: Scammers may impersonate a financial institution’s anti-fraud team to gain access to financial assets.
Financial transaction fraud: A scammer sends a text message or email that’s designed to look like an official communication from the victim’s financial institution and asks the victim to verify a nonexistent large transaction. If the request is verified, the victim may be connected to a fake representative, who advises the victim to move their funds to a “secure” account they control.
Advice spotlight
Download your financial institution’s official app.
With fraudsters increasingly posing as banks and other financial organizations, it’s not always easy to know which messages to trust. Using the official app helps ensure the alerts and updates you receive are legitimate and keeps your information better protected.
4. Imposter scams
Scammers don't just mimic banks to defraud victims; they also pose as government personnel, employers, financial advisors and other reputable entities and individuals. Treat unexpected communications from these sources with caution.
Here are a few common imposter scams to watch for:
Social Security Administration scams: Scammers impersonating Social Security Administration employees contact victims by calls, emails or texts. They may claim the victim’s identity was stolen or attempt to trick them into giving up their Social Security number through other means.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scams: Fraudsters posing as IRS officials may threaten victims with legal action over unpaid tax bills. They may also bait victims with false claims of a tax refund or a tax rebate in an effort to trick them into providing personal information.
United States Postal Service (USPS) scams: The victim of this scam may receive an unsolicited text message about a fictitious USPS delivery. Ultimately, the sender of the text wants the victim to click on a malicious link (under the guise of package tracking) to gain access to personal information.
5. AI-fueled fraud
The rapid and recent advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is helping scammers make fraud appear more legitimate than ever before. As AI continues to grow more sophisticated, scammers are finding new ways to exploit this technology to commit fraud, including:
- AI-enabled voice cloning: Scammers use AI to mimic the voice of someone the victim knows, like a family member, to request funds for a fake emergency.
- AI-driven romance scams: Advanced chatbots impersonate individuals seeking a relationship, building emotional connections and then asking for money.
- Deepfake impersonations: Fraudsters create realistic AI-generated videos or audio of a person the victim knows and trusts to trick them into transferring funds.
Steps to help protect yourself from these scams
While each of these scams are different, many fraudsters use similar tactics to entrap their targets. As such, there are universal steps you can take to help protect yourself:
- Be wary of unsolicited messages: Be mindful of any unsolicited financial advice or requests to move your money or investments:
- Treat emails and text messages from unknown senders with skepticism, even if they appear to be from your financial institution.
- Do not answer unsolicited phone calls from unknown numbers.
- Avoid clicking on links or responding to messages asking for personal information, as these could lead to malicious attacks.
- Resist urgent tactics, threats or secretive language: A consistent red flag of most fraud attempts is that the victim will feel pressured to act immediately or suffer negative repercussions if they do not. Scammers may try to scare or entice you with messages such as:
- “Secure your accounts with this guaranteed system right now.”
- “This opportunity is available for the next 20 minutes only.”
- “Respond immediately, or your account will be suspended.”
- Closely monitor your financial accounts: Regularly review your accounts for unusual activity and consider downloading your financial institution’s mobile app so you can receive real time alerts and quickly spot — or stop — suspicious activity.
- If you’re an Ameriprise Financial client, use our security tools: Consider the following actions to help protect your information:
- Register for the secure site on ameriprise.com.
- Use 2-Step Verification.
- Enroll in push notification authentication.
- Activate text alerts.
- Ensure your contact information is up to date.
- Use complex, unique passwords.
- Monitor your login history.
- Communicate securely with your financial advisor via the Ameriprise Message Center.
Your online financial security is important to us
At Ameriprise Financial, we’re committed to protecting your online security. Contact us if you have questions about how we help protect your investments and information from bad actors.