The increasing sophistication of cybercrime and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)–driven threats are complicating the fight against Digital fraud. A global survey by Sumsub found that between 2024 and 2025, the overall identity fraud rate declined from 2.6% to 2.2%, although it remained above the 2% recorded in2023.

However, this slight decrease does not signal a safer environment: in 2025, 40% of surveyed companies and 52% of end users reported having been victims of scams linked to Identity theft and advanced social engineering techniques.

While the total volume of fraud attempts stabilized, high-quality attacks increased by 180%. In particular, the share of multi-step attacks rose from 10% in 2024 to 28% in 2025 of total identity fraud. These attacks do not occur as a single isolated action; instead, they unfold through a sequence of seemingly legitimate steps, spread over time and often across multiple channels.

In 2025, the sectors most affected by Digital fraud were media and online dating (6.3%), financial services (2.7%), cryptocurrencies (2.2%), professional services(1.6%), and video games (1.6%).

Rising sophistication

According to Sumsub’s report, fewer digital fraud attempts were recorded in 2025, but they were far more professionalized and designed to cause greater impact. Looking ahead to 2026, the survey warns that agentic AI–based scams are surging, driven by autonomous systems with self-learning capabilities that can execute end-to-end fraud cycles with minimal human intervention, significantly increasing the scale of Identity theft.

Agentic AI enables one or more agents to perform tasks and make decisions autonomously, albeit under human oversight. While these technologies can be used for criminal purposes, they are also being applied defensively. They are already used to automate processes such as customer onboarding, Mobile ID and KYC, transaction monitoring, and investigations related to sanctions or fraud. Agentic AI also has the potential to transform risk management through real-time monitoring and adaptive learning, continuously optimizing detection and prevention strategies against Digital fraud.

2026 outlook

A report by ESET indicates that AI and offensive automation will shape the cybersecurity agenda in 2026. The report anticipates the growth of threats such as:

• Hyper-personalized phishing is generated in seconds and is increasingly realistic
• Offensive agents (agentic AI) capable of executing full attack cycles, from reconnaissance to exploitation.
• Dynamic evasion of detection systems through models trained ad hoc to bypass signatures, rules, and defensive patterns.
• Abuse of large-scale models to create credible synthetic content, including deepfakes and automated disinformation campaigns.

How Mobile ID helps

Against this backdrop of growing Digital fraud sophistication, organizations face a key challenge: detecting threats in real time. Achieving this requires not only advanced tools but also a deeper understanding of risk, well-designed strategies, and stronger decision-making capabilities.

Today, companies have new resources to reinforce their defenses: Mobile identity verification through Mobile ID APIs and device signals. These tools strengthen Mobile ID and KYC processes by enabling identity validation directly from the telecommunications network, rather than relying solely on user-declared data.

Identity Mobile ID APIs—such as number verification, SIM status, and number-to-device matching—confirm that a user is truly associated with a real, active mobile line under an operator’s control. This significantly reduces fraud linked to Identity theft, including the use of recycled or virtual numbers, synthetic identities, and impersonation using stolen data. Unlike traditional KYC methods based on documents or static information, Mobile identity verification operates from the operator’s infrastructure, making it harder to manipulate and more effective against automated fraud.

Device signals add technical and behavioral context—device type, operating system, terminal fingerprint, network, approximate location, and SIMor device changes—allowing organizations to assess whether a transaction occurs in a trusted environment or shows anomalies.

In this sense, AI and Mobile identity verification are complementary: APIs provide reliable signals from the network, while AI interprets, correlates, and turns them into scalable, real-time decisions. Together, they transform Mobile ID, KYC, and fraud prevention into predictive, dynamic, business-oriented processes.

 At Plusmo, we offer a comprehensive suite of mobile identity APIs designed to ensure secure and reliable verification across digital processes. These solutions help protect businesses against Digital fraud—including account takeover and location-based fraud—while delivering a smooth, frictionless user experience during onboarding and transactions.