Articles — ThreatFabric

PSD3, PSR and the Rise of Privacy-Preserving Behavioural Analytics

John Doe — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 08:50:00 GMT

Why Regulation Matters in Fraud Prevention

Fraud has changed. Controls for a world of stolen credentials, compromised accounts, and unauthorised transactions need to be revisited, because today's reality is different. Customers are manipulated into authorising payments themselves through scams, social engineering, remote access tools (RATs), malware, and impersonation attacks.

Manic: Blend between Banking Malware & Spyware

John Doe — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:50:00 GMT

ThreatFabric's Mobile Threat Intelligence (MTI) Team has identified a new Android threat actively distributed in the wild.

The modern mobile threat landscape includes numerous malware families operated by individual threat actors and organised criminal groups, all competing for ways to infect victims as smoothly and inconspicuously as possible. Manic sits at the intersection of Android banking malware and mobile spyware, combining financial-fraud capabilities with broader surveillance and device-control features. Its targeting is strongly focused on Ukraine, covering Ukrainian banks, government and identity services, and messaging applications, while also extending to Russian and European financial institutions, global fintech and cryptocurrency services, and military-focused communications.

Behavioural AI: FAQ & Myths

John Doe — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:50:00 GMT

After speaking with hundreds of banks, payment providers, and fraud teams over the years, we've identified a common set of questions that consistently arise when discussing behavioural analytics. This FAQ brings together the most frequently asked questions and explains how ThreatFabric approaches behavioural intelligence, fraud detection, privacy, and implementation.

From Detection Gaps to Fraud & Scam Leadership

John Doe — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:50:00 GMT

How Financial Institutions Greatly Increase Value Detection Rates (VDR)
with ThreatFabric’s Behavioural SDK

Fraud and scam prevention has become one of the most carefully measured disciplines within modern financial institutions. Meaningful industry benchmarks are rare. Across discussions with more than 30 European financial institutions, however, a common theme consistently emerges: Value Detection Rate (VDR) has become one of the most important executive fraud KPIs. It is the metric that determines how much fraud is actually intercepted before customer losses occur.

When Device Facts meet Behavioural Analytics

John Doe — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:49:59 GMT

Scams, Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, and social engineering have become some of the largest sources of consumer fraud losses globally. Unlike traditional Account Takeover (ATO) attacks, these frauds often involve legitimate customers using their own trusted devices, credentials and authentication methods, from trusted locations. As a result, many institutions are shifting their focus from transaction monitoring towards collecting risk intelligence earlier in the customer journey.

Multi-Model Behavioural Analytics: Understanding the User and the Fraudster

John Doe — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:50:00 GMT

Traditional fraud detection focuses on the transaction itself: who is sending money, where it is going, how much is being transferred, and whether similar transactions have been seen before. While these signals remain important, they often struggle with modern scams and Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud because the transaction is frequently initiated by the genuine customer.

Behavioural Fraud Detection Patent: What it means

John Doe — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:50:00 GMT

In January 2026, the European Patent Office (EPO) granted ThreatFabric a patent for behavioural fraud detection technology.

The patent describes a solution designed to be:

✅ Accurate
✅ Lightweight
✅ Privacy-preserving
✅ Seamless across web and mobile

The technology is particularly well suited to detecting APP fraud and scams, including impersonation, romance, and investment scams, especially cases where victims are manipulated into authorising payments under a scammer’s instruction.

IPTV campaigns target Football Fans across Multiple Countries

Harry van Mierloo — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:50:00 GMT

Earlier this month, we shared findings on an upcoming threat in Spain that used football piracy as a lure to distribute mobile malware. Since then, we have identified similar activity in several other countries, pointing to a wider and ongoing effort rather than a single regional case.

The timing is notable. The FIFA World Cup is still underway, drawing large global audiences and driving demand for free online streams based on pirated content. This creates the right conditions for attackers. While these campaigns are not limited to sports content, large tournaments act as a strong catalyst, increasing both reach and effectiveness of malicious campaigns. There is little reason to expect this to stop after the tournament as long as the Fraud Kill Chain (from initial ad upload to fraudulent transaction) is not disrupted.

Own Goal? Piracy as an Attack Vector to Target Football Fans

Harry van Mierloo — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 08:45:00 GMT

Major football events consistently drive audiences toward streaming platforms. In Spain, with millions of football enthusiasts and where premium competitions such as the UEFA Champions League are tied to paid services like Movistar Plus, a portion of viewers continues to look for free alternatives.

In the period before the recent UEFA Champions League final between PSG and Arsenal, our MTI research team observed a clear increase in unofficial IPTV apps containing malware, notably apps masquerading as RojaDirecta apps for Android. Timing-wise this correlated with an increase in legal actions to take down websites promoting these apps.

With the World Cup approaching, similar patterns are expected to repeat at a larger scale, because the underlying issue is not limited to Spain. We are closely tracking similar campaigns targeting other countries in Europe, like for example Italy.

Fusion Fireside #19: From Twitter Threads to Fraud Insights with Becky Holmes

eward.driehuis@threatfabric.com (Eward Driehuis) — Thu, 28 May 2026 08:45:00 GMT

In this episode of Fusion Fireside, author and international speakerBecky Holmes shares her perspective on fraud – how it’s evolving, where prevention falls short, and why understanding victims matters more than ever.

Becky's journey into this space was unplanned. During the COVID-19 lockdown, she began engaging with romance scammers on Twitter/X out of curiosity. What started as light-hearted exchanges quickly turned serious as real victims came forward with their experiences. That shift led to her well-received first book on romance fraud, "Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love with You", followed by "The Future of Fraud", where she explored broader trends through interviews with experts, law enforcement, and even former fraudsters.