Phishing attacks reported annually (worldwide)

Forbes' Chinese billionaires count and worldwide phishing attacks, both climbing. Two completely unrelated forms of accumulation: one in confirmed legal fortunes, one in attempted illegal extraction. Both compounded in the same thirteen years.

Forbes' Chinese billionaires count rose from about 70 in 2010 to over 600 by 2020 as the country's tech and property booms minted fortunes, before recent downturns trimmed the list. Global phishing attacks grew sharply across the same window as bot-driven scams scaled and AI-assisted social engineering matured. Two completely unrelated growth stories sharing a window because the same thirteen years scaled both Chinese wealth concentration and an automated-fraud volume.

Wealth attracts attempts to take it. Two completely different ledgers grew in the same decade.