nsKnox, a B2B payment security company, published survey findings on October 5, 2026, jointly with research partner Treasury Dragons. The survey found that 76% of organizations experienced at least one payment fraud incident in the past year, up from 73% the year before. It also found that 53% of organizations faced a confirmed or suspected deepfake-related fraud attempt.
The figures come from the 2026 Treasury Dragons Payment Fraud Index, titled “Why Verification Remains the Weak Link.” The index is now in its fourth year. Treasury Dragons and nsKnox unveiled the findings during a live Treasury Dragons Masterclass webinar.
The survey of 104 treasury professionals found that fraud hit 44% of organizations more than once in the past year. It also found that 67% of respondents expect the risk to keep rising. Most deepfake-related incidents did not stand alone. Attackers typically paired a legitimate-looking email thread with a voice call, messaging exchange, or video interaction to make a fraudulent payment request look real. Despite that, only 44% of organizations have a formal policy covering AI-related fraud.
The index also points to a confidence gap in everyday verification practices. 79% of respondents rate their confidence in their suppliers’ banking information as high or very high. Yet only 18% continuously revalidate those bank details. The gap extends to awareness as well: 75% rate their fraud awareness as high or very high, but only 39% say their organization clearly assigns ownership of payment fraud. 41% of respondents still receive sensitive supplier or payment data over email rather than through a secure or encrypted channel. A further 48% do not run a dedicated payment fraud prevention system.
nsKnox CEO Nithai Barzam said the problem facing treasury teams is “no longer awareness, it’s verification.” Mike Hewitt, CEO of Adaugeo Media and founder of Treasury Dragons, added a caution of his own. Confidence, he said, “should be the outcome of continuous verification, not a substitute for it.”
Why it matters: Deepfake-enabled social engineering is converging with the payment redirection fraud that already targets treasury and accounts payable teams. Attackers now combine email, voice, and video rather than relying on any single channel. Processors, banks, and merchants depend on treasury teams to approve supplier and vendor payments. That dependence exposes them to the same gap between stated confidence and actual verification frequency.
Key takeaway: Treasury and finance teams that lean on manual callbacks or email confirmations to verify payment instructions carry a widening gap. That gap sits between how confident they feel in those controls and how often they actually test them. Deepfake-enabled fraud attempts increasingly target exactly that gap.
Editor’s note: This item is based on survey findings commissioned and published by nsKnox, which sells payment verification technology, in partnership with Treasury Dragons. The release does not disclose sampling methodology, respondent geography, or margin of error.
Source: CFO.com
