Forced checking emerged as a significant global trend in recent times, growing by a staggering 1500% in Germany alone. In the first quarter of 2023, forced verification accounted for 5 percent of all fintech fraud cases, up from 0.3 percent in 2022. The report revealed a considerable increase in deepfake fraud incidents in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and North America. The percentage of deepfake cases in the United Kingdom increased from 1.2 to 5.9 percent. In contrast, printed forgeries decreased significantly, from 16 to 23 percent of all fraudulent activity in 2022 to 0.1 percent or less in the previous quarter.

Sumsub’s internal statistics show that digital fraud has increased across multiple industries. In the consulting industry, fraud cases tripled from 1 to 3 percent in Q1 2023, while the fraud rate for crypto services nearly doubled to 1.6 percent. In contrast, fraud rates in the FinTech sector decreased from 3 to 1 percent. In the first quarter of 2023, the e-commerce industry registered 1.3 percent of all fraud cases, while IT service segments recorded a comparatively high fraud rate of 1.5 percent.

Sumsub’s global data analysis of the document categories used for online validation revealed that the driver’s license had been the most common document for identity verification in the United Kingdom and the United States. In continental Europe, however, identification cards predominated. Passports and identification cards were the least secure documents in the EU and the UK.

Commenting on the report, Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, director of AI & ML at Sumsub, stated, “We’ve observed a global pattern of forced verification. The increasing prevalence of the deepfake scam is alarming. “As it has become easier to create deepfakes, their quantity has increased, as evidenced by the statistics.”

You can find latest fintech news, insightful analysis of the financial sector, and the latest events in the fintech world at our website.