International. Sumsub's new data highlights the growing trends of fraud on a global scale, awarding "medals" to countries with the highest peaks of fraud in different types and sectors.
Sumsub presents new internal data revealing that Nigeria is the country with the largest uptick in fraud rates, across a number of fraud categories and sectors, followed by China and Indonesia. With Turkey and Brazil also in the top five, fraud risks continue to evolve on a global scale.
In Latin America, specifically in Mexico, the iGaming sector (376%) has faced an increase in fraudulent practices due to the lack of effective oversight and the growing demand for online games. These conditions have created an environment conducive to illegal activities such as unauthorized online casinos and fraudulent gambling sites.
Similarly, it is clear that technological progress has given rise to serious cybersecurity challenges, such as combating identity theft. For example, a button is enough; as the global rate of identity fraud cases in the fintech sector increased (345%) in Mexico and (918%) in Brazil. The latter country has also seen a worrying growth in cryptocurrency-related frauds, reaching a rate of (193%), due to the popularity and lack of clear regulation that have facilitated fraudulent schemes ranging from fake investment platforms to scams on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Based on customer verification data, Sumsub compared internal figures for the first half of 2024 with those for the same period in 2023. The countries that experienced the highest growth rates in each of the categories received a "gold medal", while those that fell behind received "silver medals" and "bronze medals". Nigeria received the highest number of medals in all categories and was therefore declared a "winner", followed by China and Indonesia in second and third place, respectively.
According to Sumsub's leaderboard, Nigeria received three gold medals, with the highest fraud growth in the rates of spoofing (748%) and forced verification (1091%), as well as the highest growth rates in the crypto sector (1056%). China and Indonesia received three medals in total, including a gold medal, each in deepfake fraud (964%) and identity theft (748%), respectively.
However, China ranked "above" Indonesia after coming in second place in identity card fraud (367%) and in the increase in cryptocurrency fraud (318%). This contrasts with Indonesia's second place in driver's license fraud (325%) and third place in crypto fraud growth (275%). Turkey also ranked second in forced verification (652%) and third in both identity theft (390%) and driver's license fraud (315%). Brazil led the increase in fraud in the fintech sector (918%), and Afghanistan, passport fraud (522%).
"At Sumsub we analyse new fraud data at various times of the year, in particular in our annual report on identity fraud at the end of the year. By getting ahead of the competition, we wanted to raise awareness of fraud trends in a fun way, while still highlighting serious concerns," says Vitaly Gribanov, Creative and Brand Director at Sumsub. "Fraud techniques are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent across different business sectors. In this sense, we maintain our commitment to raise awareness among companies so that they can adapt and mitigate risks," he added.
Fraud tactics will continue to evolve in 2024, and one of the main trends will be audio and video content made with AI, "deepfakes". For example, recent internal data reveals a 245% year-on-year increase in deepfake fraud cases globally. As AI technology advances, deepfake-based fraud is expected to become more widespread and difficult to detect.
"The number and quality of sophisticated types of fraud, such as deepfakes, are increasing and evolving every day around the world. Even with the most advanced technology, it is becoming much more difficult to distinguish between a deepfake and reality. The only way forward is to fight fraud with AI-based solutions," says Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, Head of AI and ML at Sumsub. "In the digital world, know-your-customer (KYC) checks during user onboarding are not enough on their own. The industry needs a holistic approach to combat the rise of fraud at all stages of the user experience. For businesses, the best protection is a multi-layered anti-fraud solution with various checks throughout the entire customer lifecycle."
