$262,000,000 Drained From US Bank Accounts in One Year As FBI Issues Warning on Account Takeover Scams

The FBI is warning the public about an epidemic of scams draining bank accounts across the country.

In a new announcement, the agency says Account Takeover (ATO) scams have drained a whopping $262 million from individuals, businesses and organizations since the start of 2025.

Criminals initiate ATO scams by impersonating the personnel or website of a financial institution to gain access to the victims’ account and siphon their money or information for personal gain.

The FBI says that cybercriminals use social engineering techniques, which include contacting account owners via text, calls or emails to trick them into providing their login credentials, including the multi-factor authentication (MFA) code or One-Time Passcode (OTP).

The bad actors tell their target victims that their accounts were involved in fraudulent transactions or their information was used to make illicit purchases.

Once they get the login credentials, the fraudsters access the victim’s account, initiate a password reset and ultimately take full control of the account.

The scheme also uses phishing websites that mimic the legitimate ones to trick victims into entering their login credentials. 

“Once the impersonators have access and control of the accounts, the cyber criminals quickly wire funds to other criminal-controlled accounts, many of which are linked to cryptocurrency wallets; therefore, funds are disbursed quickly and are difficult to trace and recover.”

Cybercriminals also use a technique called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) poisoning to increase the prominence of these fraudulent sites and make them appear more authentic.

The FBI says that since January 2025, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) already received more than 5,100 complaints of ATO fraud.

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