‘Identity Theft Reaches New Heights’ – Reveals Shufti Global ID Fraud Report 2021

Originally published on PR Underground

CANARY WHARF, UK – Feb. 18, 2022 – Globally acclaimed identity verification service provider, Shufti, released new data in a recently published Global ID Fraud Report – 2021 which entails insights from ample research of 11 months of verification. The report shed a light on the evolving fraudulent activities and advanced manipulation techniques that Shufti encountered in 2021. Experts from Shufti have also made fraud predictions that will threaten the corporate sector in 2022.  

The constant spike in identity and financial fraud with each passing year causes major troubles for both retailers and customers. In 2021, Shufti captured around 33% of tampered ID document fraud attempts. Sudan, Kenya, Cameroon, and Ethiopia were the primary targets of fraudsters with biometric fraud attempts surpassing 50% in 2021. MRZ manipulation, counterfeit documents, and imitated security features are some of the reasons that caused an increase in fraud. 

COVID-19 pandemic has further fueled the fire as the report found that the fraud rate recorded in 2020 was approximately 21%, while in 2021, even though the physical restriction began to lift, the overall scam rate was increased by a whopping 3%. Taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and recurring lockdowns, perpetrators fully targeted businesses and customers in the holiday season. Impersonation scams, synthetic ID fraud, account takeover, and chargebacks were some of the most encountered fraud attempts this holiday season. 

“We are surprised to see the remarkable turn of fraudsters from simple manipulation of identity documents to tech-driven tampering to dodge identity verification,” said Victor Fredung, the CEO of Shufti. “As we move on to 2022, I would advise businesses in every industry to employ robust mechanisms to combat identity thieves and financial criminals.”

The key takeaways from the report include:

• Around 30% of the phishing emails sent every day are opened by victims and 12% of them click on the malicious link given. Considering the growing trends of fraud, it is observed that phishing attacks will be greatly used by fraudsters to carry out illegal activities
• Millions were laundered through virtual assets in 2021 and considering the fraud cases it is predicted that crypto and NFT-based criminal activities will increase significantly in the coming years 
• The trends in remote working will provide fraudsters an edge to easily target companies that are employing remote working, especially during a pandemic

About Shufti

AI-powered digital identity verification solution provider, Shufti, offers KYC, KYB, and AML services in 240+ countries and territories. Given the ability to verify 3000+ documents, Shufti authenticates documents in 150+ languages with an accuracy rate of 98.67%. Through its AI-driven efficient verification services, the company aims to create a secure digital marketplace devoid of identity theft and other fraudulent activities. 

For more information, 

Damien Martin
Marketing Executive | Shufti
[email protected]
+44 1225290329