Think about checking your checking account and discovering it empty, or seeing social media posts you by no means wrote.
This scary situation is actual. It’s known as identification theft, and it is getting worse annually. Criminals preserve discovering extra revolutionary methods to steal your private data, typically utilizing new methods like pretend movies (deepfakes) or tough emails.
Identification menace detection software program helps struggle in opposition to this rising menace. These instruments can spot threats early and shield you earlier than any actual hurt occurs.
That will help you keep secure, I’ve collected some important identification theft statistics exhibiting simply how superior these scams have turn out to be.
Identification theft statistics at a look
Right here’s an outline of all of the statistics we cowl on this article.
| Perception | Key statistic | Particulars |
| Price of cybercrime | Anticipated to rise to $10.5 trillion yearly in 2025. | AI is driving this rise in identification theft with deepfakes and complex phishing assaults. |
| Artificial identification fraud | Can account for as much as $23 billion in losses within the U.S. alone by 2030. | The price of creating hyper-realistic artificial identities is changing into cheaper. |
| Doc fraud | 40.8% of doc frauds goal nationwide ID playing cards. | Most paperwork are flagged both for visible authenticity or knowledge validation points. |
| Identification fraud timing | Spike between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. UTC. | Fraudsters make the most of enterprise downtime. |
| Publish-quantum period | 61% of IT safety professionals are getting ready for the post-quantum period. | Their organizations are transitioning into post-quantum cryptography (PQC) requirements over the following 5 years. |
| Deepfakes | 46% of companies reported a rise in deepfakes and generative AI scams. | Consultants recommend on the lookout for queues in language and context for deepfake identification. |
| Account takeover scams | Elevated by 250% in 2024. | Malicious hackers are more and more taking management of victims’ social and e-commerce accounts. |
| Office-related fraud | 32.52% of scams contain worker impersonation. | Attackers are more and more concentrating on private knowledge for unauthorized entry. |
| Identification frauds’ major goal | Gaming business is the first goal of those assaults. | Sector-wise, monetary establishments have been a major goal. |
| Subtle Impersonation | 1 in 20 identification verification makes an attempt in 2024 concerned impersonation. | Impersonation has turn out to be the most typical sort of identification fraud |
High 10 stats on identification theft in 2025
Beneath are some statistics and insights on identification theft that showcase simply how far identification theft has come. These aren’t simply numbers to gloss over; they mirror actual threats with actual penalties.
1. The price of cybercrime is anticipated to rise to $10.5 trillion yearly by 2025.
That’s up from $3 trillion in 2015. If annual cybercrime have been a rustic, it will have the third-largest gross home product (GDP) on this planet, proper behind the U.S. and China.
Many behind the losses are identification thieves who use victims’ private data to steal advantages like Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) help, small enterprise loans, and different sources.
AI is driving this rise in identification theft, with deepfakes and complex phishing assaults powered by generative AI. World Financial Discussion board highlights the surge in fraud within the U.S. in the course of the pandemic, pushed by the elevated digitization of presidency companies. Between 2018 and 2022, annual federal losses on account of fraud ranged from $233 billion to $521 billion.
Entrust reviews deepfakes now account for 40% of biometric frauds.
2. Artificial identification fraud may attain $23 billion in U.S. losses by 2030.
Artificial identification fraud happens when scammers create pretend identities utilizing a mix of actual and fabricated data. They could steal an actual Social Safety quantity, typically from a toddler or somebody with no credit score, and add pretend particulars like a made-up title or birthday. Then, they use this pretend identification to get bank cards, loans, or authorities advantages. As a result of the identification doesn’t belong to an actual particular person, it’s robust to catch.
Daniel Flowe, Head of Digital Identification at LSEG Threat Intelligence, expresses his views concerning the rising artificial identification fraud problem. He says, “2025 will see artificial identification fraud get away and turn out to be a considerable — and rising — problem. The instruments and applied sciences that fraudsters can leverage to create hyper-realistic artificial identities have gotten cheaper and extra available. On the identical time, dangerous actors have gotten more and more expert.”
Firms have to implement strong vendor administration techniques, safe fee strategies, real-time account verification, and steady transaction monitoring.
3. Throughout all doc fraud, 40.8% goal nationwide ID playing cards.
In 2024, the identification fraud charges throughout the Americas, APAC, and EMEA areas have been 6.2%, 6.8%, and three.4%, respectively. A few of the most focused paperwork embody the Indian tax ID, the Pakistan nationwide ID card, the Bangladesh nationwide ID card, and the French passport.
Most paperwork are flagged both for visible authenticity (47%) or knowledge validation points (36%), indicating an more and more subtle vary of assaults.
4. Frauds occur 24/7 however spike between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. UTC.
Whereas fraud happens 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, fraudsters exploit what companies and prospects assume to be enterprise downtime.
Supply: Entrust
Companies might profit from deploying and imposing their fraud prevention techniques 24/7, with particular consideration paid in the course of the “downtime” interval.
Timing-based fraud occurs when criminals strike throughout susceptible moments. These moments may be past downtime, equivalent to month-end closings, payroll runs, vendor funds, holidays, or when your defenses are weakest.
Past relying solely on 24/7 monitoring, companies want smarter, behavior-based defenses that may spot exercise that doesn’t match the usual consumer patterns. Including layers of authentication, approvals, and velocity guidelines provides you with a greater assemble to guard in opposition to such fraud.
5. 61% of IT and IT safety practitioners are getting ready for the post-quantum period.
As quantum computing continues to mature, the know-how is getting near the cryptographically related quantum computer systems (CRQCs). These techniques are able to breaking encryption, which we depend on to maintain knowledge secure and safe.
Recognizing this threat, the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Expertise (NIST) issued its first post-quantum cryptography (PQC) requirements in August 2024. These requirements embody directions for incorporating them into merchandise and encryption techniques.
Entrust’s State of Zero Belief and Encryption Examine reviews that 61% of IT and IT safety practitioners of their organizations are planning emigrate to PQC inside the subsequent 5 years.
6. 46% of companies reported a year-over-year enhance in deepfakes and generative AI fraud.
Deepfakes aren’t straightforward to detect and struggle. Though 46% of organizations report a rise in deepfake frauds, 50% really feel that they’re at a constant stage YoY.
In keeping with Genuine ID’s analysis, 76% of enterprise homeowners are assured of their means to detect deepfakes. Nevertheless, 47% of workers are equally assured in a enterprise’s deepfake detection functionality.
Blair Cohen, President and Founding father of AuthenticID, expresses his ideas on Deepfakes: “Regardless of the sophistication of deepfake know-how, refined clues in language and context can generally betray their authenticity. Because the battle in opposition to misinformation intensifies, the hunt for efficient safeguards and shopper schooling in opposition to deepfakes stays crucial.”
7. Account takeover scams elevated by 250% in 2024.
Roughly 40% of victims in these scams reported experiencing identification theft. A typical sufferer loses round $180 in these scams. Malicious hackers take management of the goal’s social media, banking, e mail, and even e-commerce accounts to propagate into extra important techniques.
Scammers sometimes receive a variety of data from these accounts, together with private and conversational knowledge. Some specialists predict that these techniques will overshadow different strategies, equivalent to ransomware, in 2025.
8. 32.52% of workplace-related fraud entails impersonation of an worker.
Past impersonating an worker, 18.7% contain misrepresented or pretend worker purposes for a place. 30.89% of incidents happen on account of worker account takeover, and 19.51% of identification frauds end result from bodily or mental property theft.
Phishing is the most typical methodology used to trick folks in these scams. 76.86% of frauds contain phishing. That is evident, as 90% of cyber threats are pushed by social engineering.
On common, there are 34 annual makes an attempt concentrating on private knowledge or consumer accounts for unauthorized entry.
9. 18.59% of identification frauds goal the gaming business, whereas 5.74% goal retail.
Fraud charges are the best within the gaming and worker background screening industries, at 18.59% and 10.62%, respectively. Sector-wise, monetary establishments have persistently been the goal for dangerous actors.
Relating to defending in opposition to identification theft dangers in monetary establishments, there are blended opinions amongst prospects. For instance, 49% of shoppers are assured about their establishment’s safety in defending their identities. Nevertheless, 51% of shoppers are nonetheless uncertain or not sure.
Garry W.G. Clement, Chief Anti-Cash Laundering Officer at Versa Financial institution, says, “Identification fraud with the entire present know-how and the power to make use of the darkish internet to create pretend identities will proceed to escalate and require material specialists and applicable coaching and know-how to thwart assaults.”
10. 1 in 20 identification verification makes an attempt in 2024 concerned somebody pretending to be another person.
These are makes an attempt from people who find themselves impersonating another person. In keeping with Veriff’s knowledge, 82% of fraud assaults in 2024 have been impersonation makes an attempt, making it the most typical sort of fraud.
With know-how, direct impersonation has developed into a certified fraud rip-off. In a certified fraud, a foul actor methods a real consumer into performing an identification verification session. In 2024, these licensed fraud circumstances accounted for roughly 1.79% of all verification makes an attempt.
E-commerce had the best licensed fraud price in 2024, reaching 1.62%. That is 18 occasions greater than the worldwide common for any such fraud.
Find out how to forestall identification theft
Listed below are a number of fast suggestions that folks and companies use to guard themselves in opposition to identification fraud:
- Set workflows to determine and cease fraud early. Consider onboarding like your entrance door and cease the fraudster earlier than they enter. It’s greatest to confirm identification via know your buyer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks. These are necessary for regulated industries; it’s greatest to accommodate them in unregulated sectors too.
- Hold checking for fraud persistently. Fraudsters don’t cease after onboarding. Defend the entire buyer journey with biometric checks throughout delicate actions equivalent to high-value transactions. Arrange a system to check new facial scans with the unique onboarding knowledge to substantiate identification.
- Deal with biometric authentication knowledge with care. Retailer biometric knowledge on the consumer’s gadget or your personal server, primarily based on what works greatest. The secret is giving your system flexibility whereas sustaining management over threat administration and knowledge deletion.
- Undertake a zero-trust safety mannequin. Belief nobody by default and all the time confirm identification and entry. Use sturdy identification and entry administration (IAM) and phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure fraudsters aren’t impersonating a real consumer. Add public key infrastructure (PKI) to safe and confirm digital communications.
- Use AI to struggle AI-driven fraud. Superior AI fashions detect extra fraud than fundamental, generalized techniques. For instance, micro-models educated on hundreds of fraud patterns can catch extra pretend paperwork.
Managing sophistication in identification fraud with simplicity
Identification theft is not only a threat; it’s a continuing, evolving threat rising in dimension and scale via AI and deepfakes. That you must shield your self and the group proactively in opposition to this digital menace.
Options like identification and entry administration (IAM) software program assist set up the right controls with approvals, authentication, and privileges to guard in opposition to such threats.
Discover the main IAM software program and take higher management of various identities in your enterprise.