Canada's reported fraud losses set a record: over CAD 704 million.

Canada set a fraud record in 2025: more than 112,000 reports to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, with over CAD 704 million in reported losses — up from CAD 638 million the year before. The CAFC's own estimate that only 5–10% of victims report puts the plausible real figure in the billions.

For businesses, the sharpest threat is what the CAFC classifies as spear phishing: business email compromise, spoofed supplier and executive emails, and payment-redirection wire fraud. It cost a reported CAD 67.9 million in 2025 across only 571 victims — roughly CAD 119,000 per reporting victim, making it the second-costliest category despite tiny report volumes.

Survey data shows the pressure is normal, not exceptional. CFIB found half of Canadian small business owners experienced attempted or actual fraud in a year; just over a third of those hit suffered a financial loss, averaging CAD 7,800 per impacted owner. Payments Canada found one in five businesses experienced payment fraud in just six months — a higher rate than consumers — with impersonation of a trusted business contact the most common type.

Recovery is the exception. Statistics Canada's victimization survey found Canadians recovered just over CAD 6 billion of more than CAD 16 billion lost over five years — and most of that came from bank, card, or insurance reimbursement, protections that largely do not extend to a business that authorized a transfer to a fraudster.

Half of Canadian small business owners faced attempted or actual fraud in a single year, and businesses are victimized at a higher rate than consumers — 20% versus 13% over six months — with impersonation of a trusted contact the most common pattern.

The spear-phishing numbers show why this is existential rather than nuisance-level: roughly CAD 119,000 in reported losses per victim in 2025, a sum most Canadian SMBs cannot absorb, while a business that authorized an EFT to a fraudulent supplier account has no zero-liability protection and no reimbursement right.

With confirmation of payee not arriving until the Real-Time Rail launches — and scoped first to personal payments — checking supplier bank details against verified records before releasing payment is the one control a Canadian business can deploy today. That check is exactly what PayHQ automates.