AI-driven fraud and deepfakes surge globally in 2025-2026
Organised criminal groups are increasingly using AI-generated deepfakes, voice cloning and synthetic identities to commit fraud at scale. African iGaming platforms recorded the highest fraud rates globally in early 2026, while UK fraud losses reached £1.28 billion in 2025, with one documented case of fraudsters using deepfake video to impersonate executives and steal HK$200 million from a UK consultancy.
What happened
Criminals are increasingly using artificial intelligence tools including deepfake videos, voice cloning and synthetic identities to conduct fraud at scale globally. According to the Sumsub iGaming Fraud Report 2026, about 97 per cent of fraud detected across Africa is now intercepted during facial biometric or liveness checks, indicating fraudsters are using real identity information obtained through data breaches and social engineering instead of forged documents.
UK payment fraud losses reached £1.28 billion in 2025, with authorised push payment fraud losses rising 19 per cent to £576.4 million, as organised criminal groups deploy AI-powered tools to impersonate trusted people and bypass identity checks. In one documented case, fraudsters used AI-generated video to impersonate senior executives of UK engineering consultancy Arup during a conference call, leading an employee at the Hong Kong office to transfer HK$200 million.
Reported impact
Africa recorded the highest iGaming fraud rate globally in the first quarter of 2026, at 2.54 per cent, about 66 per cent higher than the global average and more than double the rates in Europe and Latin America. UK Finance warned that organised criminal groups are rapidly adopting AI to automate attacks and increase credibility, allowing scams to be carried out at greater scale while making them harder for victims to distinguish from legitimate communications.
Index analysis
The findings are based on more than three million fraud attempts and millions of identity verification checks conducted between 2024 and the first quarter of 2026. Criminals are abandoning fake identity documents in favour of genuine stolen identities, with fraud groups using AI-generated faces, edited identity documents and synthetic identities as tactics evolve faster than many businesses can respond.
Governance controls
Nigeria's improving fraud trend reflects growing investments in digital identity verification and fraud controls by operators, though the report warns no market is insulated from evolving criminal tactics.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.