One in 25 digital identity checks flagged as fraudulent

Regulatory tightening across the EU and UK, including the EU’s new anti-money laundering package and platform-economy rules, as well as emerging age-assurance requirements around online safety, have pushed organizations to formalize identity checks at scale.

But identity verification provider Veriff has published its 2026 Identity Fraud Report, showing that 4.18 percent of all digital identity checks processed through its platform in 2025 were flagged as fraudulent – the equivalent of one in every 25 verification attempts across its global dataset.

In the EU and UK, the picture is sharper still with the annual mean net fraud rate rising from 4.29 percent in 2024 to 9.77 percent in 2025, a 2.3-fold increase.

“Higher numbers do not mean Europe has suddenly become twice as dishonest,” says Ira Bondar-Mucci, fraud platform lead at Veriff. “They show that more organizations are now required to check who they are dealing with -- many of them never had the responsibility before. When you start measuring fraud properly, the figures will almost always look worse before they look better.”

impersonation attacks account for more than 85 percent of cases across Veriff’s dataset. The underlying tactics are well-known, but AI now allows bad actors to automate attacks at an industrial scale, rapidly generating synthetic identities to probe and infiltrate systems. These identities don’t need to be perfect -- attackers only need to find a company whose controls leave a gap for one of them to get through.

Document fraud accounts for 13 percent of fraud cases, a 13 percent year-on-year decrease, suggesting that attackers are shifting their efforts to higher-yield impersonation and account-takeover methods. 

Financial services companies remain under pressure, with a net fraud rate of 5.5 percent, around 30 percent higher than the global average. Within the sector, traditional banks, crypto platforms and trading and investment firms all recorded net fraud rates around or above twice the global level. In the UK, fintech platforms saw a 35 percent year-on-year increase in the frequency of fraudulent attempts.

Online marketplaces and eCommerce businesses face even higher exposure, with a net fraud rate of 19.2 percent, almost five times the global average. The sector accounts for one in five verification attempts flagged as fraudulent, compared with one in 25 globally. High volumes, thin margins, and complex supply chains make it easy for bad actors to slip in as buyers, sellers, or gig workers.

“Old-fashioned forgery, along with the presentation attacks where fraudsters spoof biometric systems using photos, screens, videos, or even realistic masks, are still doing most of the damage,” Bonder-Mucci adds. “What is new is the mix and the speed. AI tools make it easier for attackers to scale manipulation of digital media, so even if AI-enabled fraud is a small percentage today, it is clearly where the fastest change is happening.”

You can get the full report from the Veriff site.

Image credit: Shmeljov/Dreamstime.com