The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has released new data revealing that more than 800,000 manats were stolen from bank cards in the first half of 2025 through digital fraud schemes.
According to the report, nearly all fraud incidents occurred because users themselves disclosed personal or banking information to cybercriminals – often through fake websites, phishing links, or social engineering tactics.
Domestic Operations
In the first quarter, there were 992 fraudulent transactions totaling 430,944 manats in losses. The majority of cases (68.8%) involved stolen account or card data, mostly via online shopping and mobile apps (96.9%).
In the second quarter, the number of cases fell by 27% to 570, while losses declined by 11% to 344,083 manats. Data theft remained the most common method, accounting for 44.5% of incidents, again dominated by e-commerce and mobile platforms (99.7%).
Overall, domestic digital fraud declined in both volume and scale – 11% fewer financial losses, 27% fewer cases, and 19% fewer affected cards compared with the previous quarter.
Cross-Border Operations
International transactions tell a different story.
In Q1, there were 3,628 fraudulent operations totaling 185,910 manats, 80% of which were “card-not-present” transactions conducted through online platforms (89.7%).
By Q2, the number of incidents rose by 13.8% to 4,798, and total losses jumped by 36.9% to 430,104 manats. The same pattern persisted – card-not-present fraud accounted for over 81% of all cases, with most attacks targeting e-commerce and mobile app users (87.3%).
The Central Bank emphasized that no bank system had been directly hacked – rather, criminals exploited human error and social manipulation. The regulator urged citizens to avoid sharing banking information, verify websites carefully, and use two-factor authentication wherever possible.
