High IDV failure rates shown by Intellicheck research reveal fraud targets

Online businesses and their fraud protection providers have become all too aware of the scale and escalation of identity fraud, but new numbers from Intellicheck reveal which segments and business processes were hardest-hit in 2025. In particular, the report serves a warning to the fintech sector and online alcohol retailers that fraudsters are targeting them.

The “2026 Intellicheck North America Identity Verification Threat Report” shows that 2.15 percent of IDs failed verification last year, equating to millions of potential fraud attempts each year, and enormous financial losses. Intellicheck put the report together based on proprietary, anonymized data collected from approximately 100 million identity verification transactions in North America.

It revealed more than 200 invalid IDs detected per hour, as AI-enabled tools make counterfeit IDs nearly undetectable to humans.

The banking sector overall saw a slightly lower rate of IDV failures, at 1.9 percent. But online-only retail banks, by contrast, had the highest failure rate for identity verification among financial institutions, at 5.5 percent. Payday lenders (2.8 percent) and subprime lenders (2.6 percent) were also well above average.

Identity verification for alcohol retail transactions failed more than 15 percent of the time. Identity verification attempts with art and crafts stores failed 5 percent of the time, highest among the top ten retail categories, according to the company announcement.

Password resets, long a target of online criminals, resulted in 158 percent more identity verifications than in 2024. Even as organizations shift to requiring government-issued ID checks for resets to prevent account takeovers (ATOs), 2 percent of those attempts failed in 2025.

“For organizations, identity fraud is no longer theoretical, it’s an operational reality,” says Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis. “This report delivers meaningful, cross-industry data that shows where fraud is emerging and how organizations can strengthen trust. As bad actors evolve their tactics, companies need proactive, state-of-the-art solutions tailored to their industries and customers. Protecting trust requires proven expertise and technology that stops fraud without slowing legitimate users.”

Intellicheck is offering the 11-page North American Identity Verification Threat Report for free download with registration.

The company has been gradually shifting to a more diverse customer base and identity verification delivered as a service, boosting its financial results.

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  fraud prevention  |  ID verification  |  identity verification  |  Intellicheck  |  synthetic identity fraud