Digital document forgery surpassed physical counterfeits as the leading method of fraud in 2024, accounting for 57% of all document fraud globally. This marks a 244% increase from last year, according to Entrust Cybersecurity Institute’s 2025 Identity Fraud Report.
The three most targeted documents in 2024 were all from Asia Pacific. They are the India Tax ID (27%), Pakistan National Identity Card (18%) and Bangladesh National Identity Card (15%). The India tax ID is the most targeted document in 2024 as there are a lot of templates available online for this document, making it an easy target for digital manipulation.
AI-assisted deepfakes are another area of particular concern for global organisations. The rise in face-swap apps and generative AI (GenAI) tools has allowed fraudsters to perform and scale increasingly believable biometric fraud attacks.
The capacity for malicious usage is widespread and includes fraudulent account openings, account takeovers, phishing scams, and misinformation campaigns. Deepfake attacks occurred at a rate of one every five minutes in 2024, according to the same report.
“The drastic shift in the global fraud landscape, marked by a significant rise in sophisticated, AI-powered attacks, is a warning that all business leaders must heed. This year’s data underscores this alarming trend, highlighting how fraudsters are rapidly evolving their techniques. These threats are pervasive, touching every facet of business, government, and individuals alike. To stay ahead, security teams must proactively adapt their strategies, prioritise monitoring these emerging threats, and prepare their organisations to face this new reality,” says Simon Horswell, senior fraud specialist at Entrust.
Fraud-as-a-service
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According to Entrust Cybersecurity Institute, threat actors are taking advantage of “as-a-service” platforms for phishing, fraud, and ransomware that facilitate knowledge sharing of “best practices” and the use of GenAI tools to create sophisticated digital forgery and injection attacks.
Similarly, Sumsub's Identity Fraud Report 2024 reveals that the rise of fraud-as-a-service (FaaS) is enabling widespread cybercrime. FaaS platforms provide a range of services to facilitate cybercrime, including identity theft, account takeovers, and financial fraud. This makes it easier for fraudsters to launch fraudulent schemes and at higher volumes, regardless of their technical expertise.
Sumsub also found that notable increase in more sophisticated, organised fraud schemes. These operations, often involving coordinated fraud networks and money muling, target multiple platforms and industries, and are more difficult to detect and disrupt, leading to significant financial losses for businesses.
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In Q1 2024, approximately one in every 100 online platform users was associated with a fraud network. In fact, seven of the top 10 jurisdictions for such fraud networks are concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, including Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
“With tactics becoming more sophisticated and fraud becoming more accessible, the need for enhanced verification measures is more urgent than ever. Robust identity protection is not just a preventive measure but a fundamental part of securing the future of digital businesses and protecting consumers in an increasingly complex landscape,” says Penny Chai, vice president of Business Development for Apac at Sumsub.
