Onfido Fraud Index Suggests Identity Theft is a 9-to-5 Job for Cybercriminals

Onfido’s document analysts have put together the company’s inaugural Global Fraud Index, which estimates that online identity fraud costs the economy a whopping $5 trillion every single year. Only one percent of that $5 trillion is ever recovered by authorities, making identity fraud one of the most pressing issues facing the financial industry.

“Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime, with 1 in 3 U.S. adults having been a victim,” said Onfido Co-Founder and CEO Husayn Kassai. “Our Fraud Index provides recommendations to mitigate it.”

The conclusions in the report are based on the analysis of millions of individual documents, which collectively represent more than 4,500 types of documents from 195 different countries, including driver’s licenses, passports, and national ID cards. The Index notes that some documents are more vulnerable than others. For example, India’s Aadhaar card has very few security features, while US and UK passports each have more than 30.

Interestingly, the Fraud Index also found that many cybercriminals treat fraud like any other profession. Most fraudulent activity is recorded during the traditional 9-to-5 work week, with many fraudsters opting to take the weekends off alongside the rest of us.

Given the high level of sophistication and the frequency of data breaches, Onfido warns that the problem is likely to get worse in the future. And the company is pitching its identity verification technology as a potential solution. Onfido recently upgraded the machine learning capabilities of its selfie authentication platform, and will be demoing the new technology at Money20/20 in Las Vegas at the end of the month.

The new features will make the platform faster and more accurate, and correct photos taken in suboptimal conditions. It will also provide Onfido users with an auditable record of decisions.

Onfido’s products will be on display at booth #4311 at Money20/20. Kassai and Chief Product Officer Kevin Trilli will both be speaking on panels during the event.

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October 25, 2019 – by Eric Weiss