It started with a single text message on a quiet Friday afternoon: “Urgent—bank alert: unusual transfer. Tap to review.”
The family-office assistant, juggling flights for the principal’s children and gala RSVPs, almost tapped. Almost. Had she done so, the malicious link would have installed spyware designed to hijack the office’s mobile-banking app and queue a seven-figure wire.
That near-miss is no anomaly. As private wealth has become smarter about traditional network security, attackers have pivoted to social-engineering and mobile-first scams aimed at the people around the money—executive assistants, adult children, even trusted chauffeurs.
Family offices are especially attractive targets: They control concentrated wealth, rely on lean teams, and rarely publicise breaches for fear of reputational damage.
Forty-three percent of family offices worldwide suffered at least one cyberattack in the past two years.
The Rising Cost of Inaction
Phishing emails and bogus text messages now combine with deep-fake voice calls, QR-code traps, and third-party data-broker leaks.
According to UK Finance, criminals stole £629 million from UK consumers in the first half of 2025, with 66% of authorized push payment cases starting online.
One-third of attacked family offices suffered tangible damage—operational disruption (20%) or direct financial loss (18%), according to Deloitte.
What Counts as a “Scam-Detection Tool”
- Real-time verdicts on suspicious content.
- Coverage of at least two high-risk channels (mobile, email, dark web, social media).
- Dashboards are simple enough for a PA yet powerful enough for the CISO.
- Data-residency controls that respect multi-jurisdictional tax structures.
- Demonstrated incident reduction within 90 days.
(See Impact Wealth’s digital-hygiene primer for background.)
Malwarebytes Scam Guard + Premium Security
Mobile chat is the new inbox for ultra-wealthy households: gala QR codes, aircraft-catering invoices, even crypto pitches land first on WhatsApp or iMessage.
Malwarebytes re-engineered its award-winning antivirus stack for that reality. Scam Guard, baked into Malwarebytes Mobile Security, uses on-device AI plus cloud intelligence to deliver an instant verdict the moment an assistant drags a screenshot, link, or SMS into the app.
Best for: AI-powered screening of texts, QR codes, and URLs on iOS & Android.
Key advantages
- Real-time AI chat companion that explains why an item is malicious.
- Identity Theft Protection with live agents and up to US $2 million insurance for stolen funds or document replacement.
- Browser Guard blocks typo-squatted investment portals and fake art-auction sites.
- Unified console shows device health for principals, PAs, and household staff at a glance.
Pricing: Premium Security Antivirus is US $44.99 for one device or US $59.99 for three devices annually. A 10-device ‘Family’ bundle costs US $119.99.
Ideal fit: Any family office where principals live on phones, assistants juggle travel QR codes, and IT wants one vendor for malware, phishing, and identity protection across every OS.
Abnormal Security Concierge
Elite family offices love Microsoft 365 for its friction-free collaboration, but that convenience also invites VIP-impersonation scams.
Abnormal Security’s “Concierge” layer plugs the gap with behavioral AI that learns every sender-recipient relationship inside your tenant, then quarantines anything that looks “off”—before an assistant wires money or releases diligence docs.
Best for: Executive impersonation emails and invoice fraud inside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Key advantages
- API-native, no MX-record changes; deploy in an afternoon.
- Detects novel social-engineering tactics without historical rule writing.
- Concierge dashboard prioritizes “risk to VIP,” so lean teams focus on the boss’s inbox first.
- Post-delivery remediation automatically retracts malicious mail from every mailbox.
Pricing: Starts at ~US $35–45 per user/year, with volume discounts for multi-domain family enterprises.
Ideal fit: Offices that run 365, have ≤10 IT headcount, and need a turnkey shield without swapping their secure-email-gateway.
Darktrace PREVENT/End
Most breach tools react after malware executes. Darktrace’s self-learning PREVENT/End turns that model upside-down: it continuously maps your unique environment, simulates thousands of “what-if” attacks, then rolls out micro-policies to neutralize gaps—often before a human ticket is opened.
Best for: Proactive “attack-path” modeling across hybrid on-prem, SaaS, and travel laptops.
Key advantages
- AI trained on your own traffic, not generic signatures.
- Continuous purple-team simulations surface weakest links (e.g., legacy VPN, stale SaaS token).
- Autonomous Response can isolate a device mid-flight without killing Wi-Fi for the plane.
- Executive-ready risk scores simplify board reporting.
Pricing: Sensor + SaaS licence typically US $30k–$60k per year for a <250-device estate; module pricing allows phased adoption.
Ideal fit: Multi-jurisdictional families with OT assets (yachts, estates, private jets) that must be protected even when out of IT reach.
Echosec Reveal
Your surname, yacht name, or villa GPS tag often leaks long before criminals email. Echosec Reveal scans social, deep-web, and dark-web sources—Telegram dumps, Discord servers, underground marketplaces—for mentions that could foreshadow scams or reputational hits.
Best for: Continuous external-surface monitoring—social-media chatter, data-broker leaks, dark-web sale of breached credentials.
Key advantages
- 20+ APIs (Telegram, Mastodon, Reddit, Discord, dark-web crawlers).
- Geo-fence alerts: get pinged if a family name + “St Barths” appears online during a vacation.
- One-click takedown workflow pushes DMCA or abuse reports to platforms.
- CSV/JSON export feeds right into your SIEM or Slack.
Pricing: US $15k–$25k annually for three watch-lists, unlimited keyword rules, and 50 alert seats.
Ideal fit: UHNW families with public-facing philanthropy or social-media-active heirs; any office lacking full-time intel analysts but needing brand and physical-security context.
Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security
A billion-dollar estate is still managed through WhatsApp groups and ride-share receipts. One zero-click exploit on a staff iPhone can open the door.
Lookout’s mobile endpoint platform analyzes every installed app, OS version, and network handshake to spot sideloaded spyware or Pegasus-style attacks.
Best for: BYOD smartphones and tablets used by principals, PAs, drivers, nannies—all the “small” endpoints attackers love.
Key advantages
- Detects jailbreaks, malicious profiles, and rogue Wi-Fi in real time.
- Integrates with leading MDMs (Jamf, Intune) for auto-remediation or wipe.
- Cloud-based threat feed updated hourly; no on-device drain.
- Compliance dashboards simplify GDPR or CCPA audits.
Pricing: Typically US $5–8 per device/month, billed annually; bundle discounts with Lookout CASB.
Ideal fit: Family offices where domestic staff and traveling principals share calendars, photos, and docs via personal phones.
Onfido Atlas AI
Wire rooms still rely on callback verifications—an easy target for deep-fake voice. Onfido Atlas brings bank-grade biometric checks to private-capital workflows: a 15-second selfie + liveness test tied to government ID before any transfer instruction is approved.
Best for: High-value wire approvals, KYC for direct investments, onboarding new art-dealers or property brokers.
Key advantages
- 2,500+ document templates recognized across 195 countries.
- Passive liveness and deep-fake detection that spots morphing, screen replays, or masks.
- API web-hook slots into DocuSign or private-bank portals in a weekend.
- Audit trail satisfies external auditors and insurers.
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go: ~US $1.30 per check, dropping below US $0.90 at volume; enterprise SLA available.
Ideal fit: Offices executing frequent ad-hoc wires or deal closings where the signer may be abroad or using hotel Wi-Fi.
Cofense Triage + Vision
Even the best filters miss 0.1 % of phish—and that’s all it takes. Cofense pairs human threat analysts (24/7) with automation that yanks confirmed phish from every mailbox and files takedown notices before damage spreads.
Best for: Managed phishing response and large-scale takedown across multiple cloud-mail tenants.
Key advantages
- One-click “Report Phish” button for staff; analysts investigate within minutes.
- Vision retroactively removes identical messages enterprise-wide.
- Real-time threat feed shares IOC data back to your SIEM and Abnormal.
- Monthly metrics prove click-rate reduction and user-reporting engagement.
Pricing: Starts near US $20k/year for up to 500 mailboxes; scales by tenant count rather than strict seat counts.
Ideal fit: Lean security teams that need SOC-level phishing defense without hiring their own 24-hour analysts.
Implementation Roadmap
- Week 1: Push Malwarebytes Scam Guard to every phone; set Abnormal to monitor-only mode.
- Month 1: Run Darktrace attack simulation; phishing is involved in 93% of successful family-office breaches — Deloitte, 2024.
- Quarter 1: Configure Echosec alerts for surnames and shell-company names.
- Quarter 2: Replace voice-only wire approvals with Onfido verification.
Budget & ROI
Seven-tool stack for 25 users ≈ US $120,000/year—roughly one charter flight. A single investment scam averaged £97.7 million in losses and rose 55% year-on-year.
Caveats & Counterpoints
No algorithm overrides principals who insist on public Instagram geotags. Pair tech with quarterly tabletop drills and clear incident-response runbooks.
From Reactive to Resilient
Mobile-messaging fraud will still drain US $72 billion globally despite a forecast 10% drop.
Begin with the low-hanging fruit: install Malwarebytes Scam Guard tonight, schedule a Darktrace assessment next week, and set Echosec alerts before the next art-week Instagram post goes live.
In an era where a single breach can erase generations of goodwill, proactive defence is no longer an IT budget line—it’s a fiduciary duty.
