Cifas reports sharp rise in UK identity fraud cases for 2024

The latest report from UK fraud prevention service Cifas has recorded a substantial rise in identity fraud cases filed to the National Fraud Database.

In 2024, Cifas received 421,000 reports, marking a 12.5% increase from the 374,000 cases filed in 2023. Identity fraud accounted for 59% of these reports. The rise in identity fraud impacts various sectors, as Cifas' membership extends across banking, finance, retail, insurance, telecommunications, and public sector organisations.

The report indicates a shift in fraud tactics, with fraudsters increasingly utilising artificial intelligence instead of traditional technological skills to launch sophisticated and large-scale attacks against businesses. The incorporation of AI and fraud-as-a-service platforms has made fraud more accessible, with the potential to cause damages of up to USD $2.5 million in a month from a mere USD $1,000 investment, according to a study by Sumsub, a full-cycle verification platform.

Sumsub's Identity Fraud Report identifies fake documents as the leading type of identity fraud in 2024, constituting 50% of all fraud cases. Additionally, incidents of deepfakes have increased fourfold globally and by 118% in the UK, with 1 in every 100 online users being linked to fraud networks.

Despite advancements in fraud prevention technologies, identity fraud is expected to proliferate across various user journey stages in 2025. This trend underscores the need for AI-powered detection and prevention solutions, which, despite their capabilities, are insufficient to secure business systems and sensitive data from enhanced fraud risks.

Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, Head of AI/ML at Sumsub, emphasises the importance of a proactive stance on fraud prevention. "Businesses can no longer afford to treat fraud prevention as an afterthought. It has never been easier for threat actors to orchestrate large-scale fraud campaigns. The barriers for entry have been significantly lowered, both in terms of technological expertise and financial investment. Combined with AI assistance, fraudsters have more opportunity than ever to innovate new and undiscovered tactics to leverage against businesses," he states.

"Your typical 'set-it-and-forget-it' fraud prevention approach belongs to the past. It simply will not be able to face the volume and efficacy of these new-gen fraud attacks. Businesses need to protect themselves and end-users at every step of their journey starting with robust verification to spot malicious actors in the onboarding phase. However, companies must look beyond this. As over three-quarters of fraud occurs post onboarding, they need to implement ongoing monitoring capabilities that allow them to detect suspicious activity."

According to Goldman-Kalaydin, a singular solution is insufficient to tackle all forms of fraud. "There is no 'magic tool' that can solve all fraud; however, implementing multi-layered protection at all stages of the user journey will undoubtedly help to eliminate threats," he adds.