As Fraud Tech becomes Cheaper, Identity Fraud Spikes across Africa

Driven by greater accessibility of ever-cheaper fraud technology, Fraud-as-a-Service is becoming a growing threat to African businesses, with identity fraud across the continent increasing at an alarming rate. The average Year-on-Year fraud rate growth in Africa has reached 167%, with Niger, Angola, South Africa leading the continent with identity fraud rate growth exceeding 300%.  

Johannesburg – November 21, 2024 – Sumsub, a global full-cycle verification platform, today released its fourth annual Identity Fraud Report. The report provides a detailed analysis of identity fraud dynamics worldwide based on millions of verification checks and over 3,000,000 fraud attempts analysed between 2023-2024*. The report also includes Sumsub’s Fraud Exposure Survey 2024, featuring responses from 200+ risk professionals and over 1,000 end users.

Identity Fraud Main Trends and Statistics for 2024

Sumsub’s report key findings include:

• The top-5 identity fraud types in 2024are: forged documents  (50% of all fraud attempts), chargebacks (15%), account takeovers (12%), deepfakes (7%) and fraudulent networks (4%).
• In Africa, Nigeria shows the highest average fraud rate in 2024 of 5.91%among all verifications, having doubled from last year, followed by Algeria, Tanzania, Madagascar and Chad.
• Uganda, Niger, Cameroon, Kenyaand Comoros rank among the top African countries with the highest percentage of fraud in 2024, with Kenya more than doubling its fraud incidence over the past 3 years.
• There’s been a significant 4x increasein the number of deepfakes detected globally across all industries YoY.
• Top-5 sectors most affected by identity fraud in 2024 aredating (8.9% fraud rate), online media(7.7%), banking & insurance (2.7%), video gaming (2.3%), and crypto (2.2%).
• If we look at the industrial trends, the top-5 industries with the highest identity fraud growth rates in 2023-2024 are dating (265%), online media (180%), banking & insurance(162%), fintech (156%) and edtech (144%).
• The analysis of an average fraudster economydemonstrates that, with as little as $1,000 at their disposal, a fraudster group can potentially inflict losses of up to $2.5M a month.
• Account takeover(ATO) attacks have become one of the most damaging forms of fraud. From 2023 to 2024, ATO cases surged by 250% year-over-year, a staggering growth compared to a 155% increase in 2022-2023.
• Sumsub Fraud Exposure Survey 2024 revealed that businesses lost approximately $300,000 per fraud event in 2024, and nearly half of companies (45%) and end users (44%) worldwide reported being victims of identity fraud at least once.

“In today’s digital world, identity fraud poses a serious threat to individuals and companies. In 2024, 67% of firms reported a fraud increase,” says Andrew Sever, co-founder and CEO of Sumsub. “The Sumsub Annual Identity Fraud Report has become a go-to resource for industry leaders, with previous editions cited by the UNODC, Statista, Microsoft, and major media outlets. This year, we’ve expanded our research with insights from end-users and risk professionals, providing a detailed look at current fraud dynamics, future predictions, and actionable tips for businesses. As a full-cycle verification platform, we’re committed to sharing these insights to help the community unite against fraud.”

AI and Deepfakes: from Commodity to Commonplace

In 2024, deepfakes—manipulated images, videos, or voices used to impersonate individuals—have become commonplace, with their share among all detected fraud reaching 7% in 2024. Alarmingly, AI and deepfakes are changing the misinformation game, with recent AI-generated images of Disney World underwater, or deepfakes of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris impacting electoral campaigns.

According to Sumsub’s Fraud Exposure Survey, 81% of all respondents expressed concerns surrounding the impact of deepfakes on election integrity, while 67% of respondents in North America believe that deepfakes have already impacted or will impact elections. At the same time, global consumers reported the lowest level of trust in online media at 48 out of 100 points.

 In Africa, the average YoY deepfake fraud rate growth is 393%. 

“In 2025, fraudsters will increasingly rely on AI not just for deepfakes–which are, basically, just a tip of the iceberg–but for a broader range of deceptive tools, such as AI-generated identity documents, real-life videos, synthetic voices, and AI-driven chatbots that impersonate real users. These innovations will make fraud harder to detect and more versatile,” explains Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, Head of AI/AM at Sumsub. “To fight AI-powered fraud, businesses need to deploy advanced multi-layered solutions that can analyze and detect fraud across multiple vectors, ensuring that identity fraud is tackled not just at the visual or biometric level, but across all touchpoints.”

How Cheap It Is to Commit Fraud: the Economy of a Fraudster Disclosed

Economics of fraud have shifted dramatically, making it easier and cheaper to execute large-scale operations with minimal investment. The rise of “fraud as a service” (FaaS) models allows fraudsters to outsource key aspects of their operations to specialized providers.

On average, a single fraudster can commit around 100 fraudulent activities annually, as supported by industry reports like the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. According to Sumsub’s Fraud Exposure Survey, businesses lost approximately $300,000 per fraud event in 2024.  The fraudster economics, explained in the report, highlights that an average potential annual income could be ~$29,988,000, or a potential ~$2.5M gain in one month – with as little as a $1,000 monthly investment.

To learn more and download the full Sumsub 2024 Identity Fraud Report for free, please go to https://sumsub.com/fraud-report-2024/

* Note on Sumsub’s research methodology

Sumsub 2024 Identity Fraud Report compares data from 2023 and 2024. In certain cases, 2021-2022 data is also taken into account to observe trends. The report is based on aggregated and anonymized verification statistics on millions of users from 28 industries worldwide, with 3,000,000+ fraud attempts studied. All graphs and infographics are based on internal statistics compiled from the data of consenting customers.

To delve deeper into the state of identity fraud, Sumsub conducted a Fraud Exposure Survey in August 2024, gathering insights from both consumers and companies. The survey included 1,000+ end-users as well as 200+ fraud and risk professionals from companies of various sectors, including banking, crypto, payments, e-commerce, trading, and iGaming.

About Sumsub

Sumsub is a full-cycle verification and ongoing monitoring platform that secures the whole user journey. With Sumsub’s customizable KYC, KYB, Transaction Monitoring, Fraud Prevention and Travel Rule solutions, you can orchestrate your verification process, welcome more customers worldwide, meet compliance requirements, reduce costs, and protect your business.