New York, Dec. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Online fraud is climbing at a rapid pace, with e-commerce and financial services platforms facing the greatest impact, according to Veriff’s newly released Identity Fraud Report 2026. Impersonation remains the most common type of fraud, as criminals adopt increasingly advanced techniques and move away from methods that are easier to detect.
In late September, European Union authorities opened formal inquiries into Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Booking.com under the Digital Services Act, seeking details on how the companies are preventing fraud on their platforms. The action highlights the scale of the problem: online scams – from deepfake videos of public figures promoting fake investments to fraudulent banking apps and bogus hotel listings – are estimated to cost EU residents more than €4 billion ($4.7 billion) each year.
Veriff’s report found that about one in every 25 online identity verification attempts now involves someone attempting to pose as another person.
“Across industries, online fraud attempts are clearly continuing their sharp upward trajectory, with our latest findings coming on the heels of two consecutive years of 20 percent increases,” says Ira Bondar-Mucci, Fraud Platform Lead at Veriff. “In addition, we’re seeing a clear trend of fraudsters deploying increasingly sophisticated attack methods as they move away from older techniques that are now more conspicuous.”
Other key findings from the report include:
- Impersonation fraud - someone pretending to be someone else to fraudulently access or apply for a digital account or service - is by far the most common fraud type, amounting to more than 85 percent of all online fraud attempts. Although the tactics are well-known, AI helps bad actors automate this at an industrial scale, enabling rapid generation of synthetic identities to infiltrate the systems.
- Emulator attacks - which simulate legitimate devices to bypass security measures like device fingerprinting and behavioral biometrics - are increasingly being weaponized to launch attacks at scale. Meanwhile, injection attacks - whereby a malicious actor injects false or synthetic data into the identity verification flow, often bypassing physical camera security to gain unauthorized access to an online service - are also increasing.
- As a more traditional fraud type, document fraud has dropped by 13 percent this year, while authorized fraud (where a user is tricked into performing an identity verification session or providing credentials, often a more intricate process than other types) remains low.
- E-commerce marketplaces were the most severely impacted niche, witnessing a net fraud rate (all forms of fraud taken together) in 2025 of 19.2 percent - nearly five times the global average across industries. E-commerce marketplaces also saw more than 10 times the global average of authorized fraud. Gig economy platforms and mobility platforms (for example, ride-hailing apps) also saw massive increases.
- For financial services, net fraud exceeded 5.5 percent of all online identity verification attempts, representing a significant increase from 2024’s figures. Within financial services, crypto and lending platforms led the way in fraud growth with a 38 percent year-over-year increase in net fraud rate.
- Net fraud rates in North America and Latin America remained relatively consistent from 2024 to 2025, while the annual mean fraud rate in the EU and UK has increased by nearly 2.3 times. However, with many more companies in this region now obligated to adopt formal anti-fraud and KYC solutions, a good portion of this increase may not necessarily be new fraudulent activity, but newly measured activity that was previously invisible.
- Video gaming sites and social media platforms both demonstrated net fraud rates that are more than double the global average. While the financial incentive for targeting these sites may be less immediate than e-commerce or financial services, these platforms are known for fostering multiple digital touchpoints, with the first outreach from a fraudster to an end-user often occurring through a video gaming site, online community, or dating platform. The fraudster uses these touchpoints to build rapport, which can then be used to access the target’s financial accounts or to coerce them into performing a transaction.
- AI is increasing the danger - Compared to last year, digitally presented media was 300 percent more likely to be either entirely AI-generated or otherwise altered. This is a huge increase and confirms any suspicions about the growth of AI and deepfake-powered fraud. In terms of the bigger picture, AI-powered fraud still represents a tiny fraction of all fraud committed, but it is growing at an alarming rate.
“The fraud landscape today shows just how aggressive and adaptable bad actors have become – and no platform can afford to let its guard down,” Ira said. “We welcome the EU’s push under the DSA to hold major tech companies to a higher standard, but strong, modern identity verification must be a priority for every online platform, not just the biggest ones.”
About Veriff
Veriff is a global identity verification platform helping businesses build trust online. Our AI-native technology combines automation and human expertise to quickly and accurately verify users worldwide with minimal friction. Trusted by leading companies like Blockchain, Bolt, Deel, Monzo, Starship, Trustpilot, and Webull across finance, marketplaces, mobility, gaming, and other industries. Our trust infrastructure helps businesses stay compliant, prevent fraud, protect users, and scale globally, enabling a safer, more transparent internet for everyone.
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