Security News > 2021 > December > Sophisticated identity document fraud increased 57% over previous year

Over the past 12 months, 47% of all identity document fraud was classed as 'medium' sophisticated fraud, which is a 57% increase over the previous year, an Onfido report reveals.

In 2020, there was a 41% increase in ID fraud, with the average ID fraud rate reaching 5.8%. Over the past 12 months, even though much of the physical world has re-opened, the average fraud rate was recorded at 5.9%, showing that fraud still hasn't dropped back to pre-pandemic levels.

"Large-scale operations often undertaken by criminal fraud rings have the resources to conduct sophisticated fraud such as deepfakes, 2D and 3D masks. They might also resort to techniques like coercion. Businesses will see fewer of these types of attacks, but they are the ones that can cause the most damage in the shortest space of time," said Michael Van Gestel, Head of Global Document Fraud at Onfido.

Fraudsters have ditched the 9-5: Fraudsters have officially ditched the standard working week, as weekend attacks have increased by over 50% since 2019, making fraud much more difficult to predict.

Preference to start from scratch: Over 90% of ID fraud in the past year involved counterfeit documents using a complete reproduction of an original document, instead of adapting an existing ID. Modern identity documents contain several security features that make any modifications easily detectable, even to the untrained eye - but fraudsters are adapting and making increasingly sophisticated forgeries.

"Biometric verification provides more protection against fraud than document verification alone -and a video selfie check provides superior protection over a photo selfie check," said Sarah Munro, Director of Biometrics at Onfido.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/09/sophisticated-identity-document-fraud/