India, July 23 -- A text message can now be the first step in a bank fraud attack that ends within minutes. In India, reported text-message-based scams rose 146% between the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. The figures show a broader shift in criminal tactics. Fraudsters are moving away from desktop browsers and targeting the smartphone, where customers read bank alerts, receive one-time passcodes, and authorize payments.

According to BioCatch data from its banking customers in India, mobile fraud sessions increased 67%. Fraud sessions rose 86% on iOS devices and 35% on Android, while browser-based fraud sessions declined 10%.

Many mobile scams do not begin with attackers break...