Insight

Identity Fraud Report 2020

Written by International Compliance Association on Thursday February 18, 2021

It has been a bumpy year for businesses. The pandemic has meant that most (if not all) have had to change their plans for everything from staffing to strategy. For some, it has opened up new business opportunities. For others, it has exposed existential threats. One of those threats is now greater than ever before. Fraud already costs the global economy $5 trillion a year. This year, that has increased again.

Identity fraud, in particular, has witnessed a sharp increase. Financial services have borne the brunt of this attack, but it is by no means limited to them, with professional services and even the travel industry hardest hit. This might be expected, given the events of the last twelve months.

In this report, Onfido analyses data from its roster of global clients to understand where current and future risk lies. As document and biometric fraud specialists, Onfido verifies the identities of millions of users every year and has a unique perspective on developing trends.

Report highlights:

Identity fraud is on the rise. Findings show that the fraud rate has steadily increased over the past year. This is a result of the pandemic - rates spiked during the first lockdown, and have stayed up ever since - and also by a new wave of ‘unprofessional’ and opportunistic fraudsters entering the marketplace, who are taking advantage of the disruption to perpetrate attacks.
Fraud is getting harder to catch. The bar for what constitutes ‘easy’ fraud is getting higher. We found that fraudsters are becoming increasingly creative, with sophisticated ‘replay’ and Deep Fake attacks being attempted against biometric defenses.
For businesses, the fight against identity fraud has become harder. Without the right approach in place, they’ll struggle to keep pace with both high quality and high volumes of attacks.

Download Onfido’s Fraud Report 2020 to get best practice advice on how to tackle the latest fraud trends and techniques.