Confidence Amid Chaos

Digital fraud attack rates recorded in the LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® platform continued climbing in 2023, increasing 19% year-over-year, maintaining a trajectory first noted in the LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report 2022. Organizations operating in North America (up 43% YOY) or in the ecommerce sector (up 59% YOY) sustained the greatest increase in fraud attack rates.

Gaming and gambling operators reported a 103% increase in bot volume, seemingly drawing bots away from other industries. Unsophisticated bots still serve a purpose, providing bad actors an efficient means to test data either for resale or direct attack. Bot traffic followed a surge of legitimate consumers flocking to gaming and gambling operators in multiple countries with modernizing regulations.

Fraud thrives in changing circumstance, such as the widespread and ongoing adoption of new technologies. The initial application of generative AI to fraud attacks in 2023 gives cause for concern now, but will likely be regarded as unsophisticated with the hindsight of a few more years’ innovation. Take, for example, how fraudsters continue to hone their illicit exploitation of instant payment systems as a vehicle to target consumers via authorized payment fraud (“scams”). As more consumers adopt instant payments, and as more instant payments platforms enable international transfers, fraudsters