As cybercriminals continue to adapt their techniques to find new ways through defenses, AI-assisted fraud is growing increasingly sophisticated and frequent, according to Entrust.
The findings reveal a deepfake attack happened every five minutes in 2024, while digital document forgeries increased 244% year-over-year.
The rise of amateur fraudsters
For the first time, digital document forgery surpassed physical counterfeits as the leading method of fraud in 2024, with digital forgeries accounting for 57% of all document fraud. This marks a 244% increase from 2023 and a 1,600% surge since 2021 when almost all fraudulent documents were physical counterfeits.
With the rise in AI-assisted fraud, bad actors are now able to leverage more sophisticated attacks on documents, particularly National ID Cards (40.8% of attacks globally). Threat actors are taking advantage of “as-a-service” platforms for phishing, fraud, and ransomware that facilitate knowledge sharing of “best practices” and the use of GenAI tools to create sophisticated digital forgery and injection attacks.
Historically, the biggest threats have come from organized fraud rings. Now, there will likely be a rise in amateur fraudsters and lone actors, increasing both the volume of attacks and the number of attacks that leverage sophisticated techniques.
The report identifies AI-assisted deepfakes as an area of particular concern for global organizations, as basic fraud tactics that are relatively easy to discern, like phishing, are quickly giving way to hyper-realistic AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic identities.
The rise in face-swap apps and GenAI tools has allowed fraudsters to perform and scale increasingly believable biometric fraud attacks. The capacity for malicious usage is widespread and includes fraudulent account openings, account takeovers, phishing scams, and misinformation campaigns.
Financial services become top target for criminals
The top three most targeted industries in 2024 were all related to financial services, with cryptocurrency seeing almost double the number of fraud attempts compared to any other industry (9.5%), followed by lending and mortgages (5.4%), and traditional banks (5.3%).
Crypto platforms saw the highest rate of fraudulent activity attempts, which have risen 50% year-over-year, from 6.4% in 2023 to 9.5% in 2024. This could be due to Crypto reaching an all-time price high in 2024, making it very attractive to fraudsters.
At the same time, traditional banks experienced a 13% increase from last year in fraudulent onboarding attempts, which happened as inflation rates were also high, leading to a rise in lending and mortgage scams.
“The drastic shift in the global fraud landscape, marked by a significant rise in sophisticated, AI-powered attacks, is a warning that all business leaders must heed,” said Simon Horswell, Senior Fraud Specialist at Entrust. “This year’s data underscores this alarming trend, highlighting how fraudsters are rapidly evolving their techniques. These threats are pervasive, touching every facet of business, government, and individuals alike. To stay ahead, security teams must proactively adapt their strategies, prioritize monitoring these emerging threats, and prepare their organizations to face this new reality. It’s no longer optional; it’s imperative.”