Digital Transformation and Institutional Voids: An Empirical Analysis of Social Engineering Tactics in Uzbekistan’s Banking Sector

The rapid digitalization of Uzbekistan’s financial sector has created a profound paradox: while a "fintech boom" has accelerated economic growth, it has also fostered "institutional voids" in cybersecurity. This study investigates the adaptation of social engineering tactics to the local linguistic and cultural context of Uzbekistan, a research area that remains significantly under-explored in Central Asia. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the researchers conducted a content analysis of 1,252 primary incident reports recorded in January 2025 by the internal affairs authorities of Uzbekistan. The methodology of this research is thematic coding to classify fraudulent tactics such as vishing, phishing, and pretexting, while cross-tabulating these with victim demographics. The results indicate that 98% of fraud cases involved unauthorized remote transfers, with vishing via phone calls emerging as the dominant channel (58%). A critical finding is the correlation between age and financial loss: while younger victims (ages 20–45) experienced a higher frequency of attacks with lower average losses, the older demographic (ages 45–70) suffered critical financial damage due to high levels of trust and lower technical adaptability. To address these vulnerabilities, the study proposes the “Guardian” Adaptive Security Protocol, incorporating measures such as trusted delegate verification and call-state awareness. These findings emphasize that mitigating cybercrime in emerging digital economies requires specialized socio-technical safeguards to protect vulnerable populations and maintain systemic trust.