Article 1 – Social Engineering: The Oldest Trick, Supercharged by New Technology
Earlier this week, I was part of FTT Fintech Festival 2025, on behalf of UKFin+ and I left with pages of notes, a head full of questions, and a renewed appreciation of just how complex and fast-moving our sector really is. There was far too much to take in for just one post, so I’ve decided to write a series of short articles exploring the biggest themes and key takeaways from the event.
And I’m starting with the session that surprised me the most. That is social engineering and how this “oldest trick in the book” has been radically amplified by modern technology.
Social Engineering: The Oldest Trick, Supercharged by New Technology
Out of everything discussed at FTT, one point was reiterated again and again: The weakest link in the fraud chain is not technology, but humans.
We often talk about financial crime as if it’s purely technical: stronger authentication, smarter models, better tooling. But the reality is much more human. Fraudsters succeed because they know how to manipulate, pressure, confuse, reassure, and persuade. Technology simply gives them reach, speed and efficiency.
Some of the scams discussed were uncomfortably close to everyday life:
❗ Fake modelling jobs – Fraudsters approach people in public places, ask for a photo “to see if you fit the role”, and then ask to photograph your ID, your face, and sometimes even side profiles, which is enough biometric data to open an account in your name.
❗ Delivery-driver doorstep scams – A parcel appears. The “courier” asks for your ID “just to confirm it’s you”. They photograph the ID against the parcel box, get a quick snap of your face and suddenly they have everything needed to onboard a fraudulent digital account.
❗ Young people casually sharing passwords – Kids share passwords with friends as if they’re playlists. It’s normalised behaviour, but it massively widens the attack surface for social engineering and account takeover.
These aren’t obscure edge cases. They’re happening around us, quietly, cleverly, and at scale.
The Shocking Part: Organised State-Level Scams
One moment in the session genuinely stopped me in my tracks. We often imagine scammers as isolated individuals, “script kiddies,” or people in basements with burner phones. However, it turns out that in some countries, fraud is so industrialised that it effectively fuels parts of the national economy. What used to be a one-to-one scam conducted by phone or letter is now a globally scaled operation powered by AI, automation, and social media. Fraudsters have:
- “Godlike reach” through digital platforms
- Professional scripts, psychological training and daily quotas
- Tools that mimic legitimacy with frightening speed
- The ability to launch thousands of scams simultaneously with almost no cost
That realisation alone shows the scale of what the financial services industry is up against.
Collaboration, Not Competition
One line from the panel really stuck with me: “When it comes to fighting fraud, this shouldn’t be a competitive landscape.” And they’re absolutely right. Fraudsters collaborate across borders, sectors, and channels. They share playbooks, tools and infrastructure. Meanwhile, legitimate organisations often work in silos, with banks separate from telcos, social media platforms, identity providers, and regulators. But social engineering does not respect those boundaries. This isn’t a challenge we can solve with isolated strategies. It demands collaboration within financial services as well as across the entire digital ecosystem.
Why This Session Matters
What I found so powerful about the social engineering discussion is that it pushes us to rethink our assumptions: Fraud isn’t just a cybersecurity problem, it’s not just a payments problem, it’s not even just a financial services problem. It’s a human problem with deep behavioural, social, cultural, and technological layers. Tackling it will require a different kind of thinking, one that is more interdisciplinary, honest, collaborative, and focused on how people actually behave, rather than how we wish they would behave.
This is where academia and industry need to come together, because solving this won’t happen in silos. We need research that helps us understand manipulation, detect it early, design better user experiences, and build tools that protect people before harm occurs.
UKFin+ exists precisely to create those bridges: bringing researchers, fintech innovators, regulators and practitioners into the same conversation so we can tackle these systemic, long-term challenges as a community.
What’s Coming Next
This is just the first article in my FTT Fintech Festival 2025: Lessons for the Future of Financial Services series. If you attended FTT or are passionate about reducing financial crime and improving the digital experience for everyone, I’d love to hear your insights too.
More to come – stay tuned for Article 2.