Au10tix highlights APAC as hotspot in global identity fraud report

Based on data from millions of transactions processed between April and June 2024, Au10tix’s Q2 2024 global identity fraud report, highlights a sharp rise in large-scale, organized identity fraud.

One of the most notable findings is the surge in automated bot attacks, particularly targeting social media platforms. These attacks represented 3 percent of the total in Q1 but jumped to 16 percent in Q2, according to the findings.

The APAC region has emerged as particularly vulnerable to identity fraud, with the rise of AI-powered Fraud-as-a-Service (FaaS) operations contributing to a 1,530 percent increase in deepfake-related incidents. The region now has the world’s highest fraud rate, with 3.27 percent of all transactions found to be fraudulent.

In fact, a recent FICO survey highlights the challenge of balancing seamless onboarding with effective fraud prevention in Asia.

The report also underscores the widespread use of impersonation bots, which now account for 32% of global internet traffic, according to Imperva’s 2024 bad bot report. These bots, often enhanced with deepfake technology, create highly convincing fake profiles. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region also faced increased bot-related fraud, especially in the payments sector, with one major incident involving over 5,000 fraudulent onboarding attempts.

Au10tix observed these fake profiles being used to manipulate social media, spread disinformation, and enable financial fraud such as money laundering. The growing sophistication of these attacks poses a threat to both public discourse and financial systems.

Dan Yerushalmi, CEO of Au10tix, expresses concern over the growing capabilities of bots and deepfake technologies in enabling large-scale, automated fraud. “Bots and deepfake tech are enabling criminals to automate complex scams that used to take a lot more effort, making them incredibly efficient and dangerous.

“The biggest danger lies in the bots’ ability to mimic human behavior with enough variability to bypass traditional detection methods. Au10tix remains committed to protecting our customers with industry-leading solutions like our Serial Fraud Monitor, which is the only product on the market that can detect widespread bot-driven fraud at scale.”

Despite the rise in fraud, the report also highlights some positive developments. Au10tix analysts attribute a 17 percent decline in payment sector fraud in Q2 to successful law enforcement operations, including INTERPOL’s HAECHI IV and First Light campaigns, which targeted online financial crime and social engineering schemes in late 2023 and early 2024.

The report also offers recommendations for organizations looking to strengthen their defenses against identity fraud. It calls for increased self-regulation among social media platforms, urging them to authenticate user identities to prevent the spread of disinformation. Additionally, the report suggests that organizations adopt advanced fraud detection tools, including deepfake detection, and implement multi-layered authentication measures to safeguard against organized fraud.

Article Topics

AU10TIX  |  biometrics  |  deepfakes  |  digital identity  |  fraud prevention  |  identity verification  |  social media  |  synthetic identity fraud