Calgary-based cybersecurity company TechJutsu says phone-based fraud attempts are rising sharply, with new data showing a year-over-year increase as scammers increasingly target consumers during the holiday shopping season.
TechJutsu analyzed 521,879 calls protected by its Caller Verify technology between January and November of 2024 and 2025. The company found that roughly five percent of those calls were initiated by suspected fraudsters, while the overall volume of phone fraud attempts rose 12 percent from 2024 to 2025.
According to TechJutsu, the spike reflects a familiar seasonal pattern that has intensified this year. Fraudsters have traditionally targeted the holidays, when consumers are more likely to engage with brands, customer support teams, and delivery services. Increased transaction volumes and heightened urgency can make people more vulnerable to social engineering attacks.
The findings follow a high-profile alert issued by Amazon in November, warning more than 300 million customers that criminals were exploiting the holiday shopping rush with fake customer support calls. In these scams, fraudsters impersonate trusted brands or help desk agents to trick people into revealing sensitive personal or financial information, or to convince them to install malicious software designed to spy on their devices.
Phone fraud remains a major contributor to overall internet crime losses. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, consumer losses from internet crime exceeded $16 billion in 2024, with phone-based scams such as call centre fraud accounting for billions of dollars annually.
“Consumers are being flooded with scam calls,” said Tracey Nyholt, founder and CEO of TechJutsu. “The holiday season has always been high risk. This year it’s reached a tipping point, with fraudsters using AI-generated voices to impersonate known help desk agents. Companies need to do more than warn customers; they need to deliver verifiable proof that they are really the ones calling.”
TechJutsu says the growing sophistication of phone impersonation scams is pushing enterprises to rethink how they authenticate outbound calls. Traditional caller ID systems can be spoofed, allowing attackers to appear as legitimate businesses even when the call originates elsewhere.
As a result, large consumer brands are increasingly turning to out-of-band identity verification technologies to reduce impersonation risk. These systems rely on a one-time verification code generated when an organization places an outbound call. The recipient can then confirm the code through a web or mobile application to verify the caller’s identity before sharing any information.
Unlike passive indicators such as caller ID, code-based verification provides an additional layer of assurance that the call is legitimate. TechJutsu argues that widespread adoption of these approaches could significantly reduce phone-based fraud, particularly during periods of heightened risk like the holiday season.
The company says the latest data underscores the urgency for organizations to move beyond consumer warnings and toward stronger technical protections as phone fraud continues to evolve.
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