A wave of advanced fraud is expected to hit North American businesses by 2026, driven by biometric manipulation, deepfake technology, and synthetic identities, according to the Sumsub Fraud Report 2025. Surveyed companies predict biometric fraud will see the sharpest increase, with 67% anticipating a rise as reliance on facial recognition and voice authentication grows.
Fraudsters are exploiting these systems by using AI-generated videos, cloned voices, and stolen biometric data, making verification attempts more convincing and scalable, per the report. Synthetic identity fraud is also flagged as a growing threat, with 56% of businesses expecting an uptick as criminals mix real and fake information.
The report, prepared by Visual Capitalist and sponsored by Inigo, highlights the arms race between corporate defenses and criminal tactics. As remote onboarding becomes standard, the tools for impersonation are becoming cheaper and more accessible, potentially outpacing detection measures for some firms.
These trends could reshape investment in cybersecurity and identity verification, with companies likely to rethink authentication protocols. Smaller businesses may face disproportionate risk if they lack resources to deploy advanced detection systems against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
The visualization itself is part of the 'Fraud in Data' campaign, which aims to raise awareness of evolving digital risks. No specific counter-evidence was provided in the source, but skepticism around the predictive accuracy of such surveys is common, as fraud trends can shift rapidly with new technologies.