(KOAA) — A new analysis of fraud trends in 2025 reveals that scams are no longer isolated crimes but operate more like a coordinated industry.
News5 spoke with the man behind the analysis, Dr. David Maimon, head of fraud insights at SentiLink, and known as the "Undercover Professor." He has been directly monitoring dark net fraud rings for about a year.
“Essentially what I do… is I try to figure out the online fraud ecosystem, trying to make sense out of it, trying to understand fraudsters, how they work, what they do, how they do what they do,” Dr. Maimon explained.
Dr. Maimon said the stereotypical image of a scammer working alone is outdated.
“This is essentially a very organized, orchestrated activity,” he added. “At this point you have a very detailed supply chain with folks responsible for stealing identities… producing documents and facades around those identities, then offering those identities as well as documents up for sale.”
Dr. Maimon is now sharing his perspective on where fraud is heading and why so many traditional defenses are struggling to keep up. He recently published a commentary on the topic that can be read by clicking here. He tells News5 his biggest warning centers on artificial intelligence making fraud more sophisticated. He said the next phase could involve so-called agentic AI systems acting independently.
"I think the important thing to look for in 2026 is the fact that the tools will start acting on their own. That is the major trouble. That is the major issue that I'm foreseeing for the next 18 months or so," Dr. Maimon said.
The Federal Trade Commission offers five simple tips to protect your identity:
- Read credit card statements carefully and often
- Know your payment due dates
- Read your health insurance plan statements
- Shred documents with personal information
- Review your credit reports at least once a year
In another part of his commentary, he added that "Mail theft emerged repeatedly throughout the year as a critical upstream vector."
"They're looking for checks," Dr. Maimon said of criminals stealing mail. "Where a lot of information is available and they simply use this information to create new bank accounts or take new loan so they will victimize us in all kinds of ways."
USPS offers up several tips to keep your identity safe from criminals:
-Deposit outgoing mail before collection time
-Sign credit cards immediately
-Monitor credit card expiration dates
-Review credit reports
-Don't share personal info
“Folks need to be vigilant. They need to be aware,” he said. “We all need to try and come up with some tools as well as policies which will prevent us from falling victims to these crimes.”
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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