Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG): Phishing Activity Trends Report for Q4 2025

Published on March 9, 2026
Fortra appears in the Q4 2025 APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report for its analysis of Business Email Compromise activity and attacker behavior. The report shows how anti-phishing tools help track evolving threat patterns at scale.
 
Fortra reviewed thousands of BEC attacks this quarter and found a 136% increase in wire transfer attempts. The average amount requested increased to $50,297. The report also points out Scripted Sparrow, now the most active BEC group worldwide. This group sends up to 6 million targeted emails each month and often uses fake executive approval chains.

Originally published in APWG. 

Excerpt: “Scripted Sparrow, whose members hail from South Africa, Nigeria, the U.S., and Turkey, uses a spoofed reply chain designed to trick the recipient into believing the expense was approved by a company executive.”