Digital fraud of all kinds is on the rise in the UK and Europe, with mandatory verification and deepfakes accounting for a larger proportion of cases than before, new research claims.
In terms of deepfakes, its proportion in the UK rose from 1.2% in all of 2022 to 5.9% in the first quarter of this year. In Germany, the ratio rose from 1.5% to 7.6% over the same period, and in Italy from 0.5% to 5%.
No doubt this is due to the rise and proliferation of AI ignited by the launch of the now infamous AI Writer's ChatGPT November 2022. Since then, the industry has exploded, with criminals of all kinds taking advantage of the new technology.
Mandatory authentication
Meanwhile, print forgeries accounted for 16-23% of all fraud last year, falling to 0.1% or less in the first quarter of 2023.
Forced verification has also seen a worrying increase over the same period. According to Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, head of AI & ML at verification platform Sumsubu (who made these findings based on anonymized data collected from customers), this is when "it is possible to see a person whose photo was taken or passed a biopsy." Doing so involuntarily when compelled by others."
He adds, "Sometimes the person being authenticated is apparently unconscious—maybe sleeping, maybe not feeling well, maybe even under the influence of a substance." In such cases, using the best identity theft protection may be your only right of recourse.
In Germany, these cases have grown by a staggering 1,500% as a proportion of all fraud cases, from 0.3% in all of 2022 to 5% of all fraud cases in the first quarter of 2023.
In terms of industry, consulting appears to have been hit particularly hard, with the proportion of UK fraud cases increasing from 1% to 3%. However, the situation reversed for the fintech industry as it dropped from 3% to 1%. Still, fraud in crypto services has doubled.
Nonetheless, ID forgery remains the most prevalent type of fraud in the UK and EU, accounting for 40% of all cases in the UK and Italy, and more than 25% in Germany and Spain. Liveness bypass is followed by regions with 13-16%, and editorial IDs in the UK, France and Germany at 14-16%.
techradar 