APAC businesses at risk as fraud attack rate rises to 1.7%

There is a 59% rise in automated attack tools mimicking human behaviour.

Businesses need to strengthen cyber protection as synthetic identity fraud has increased eightfold in 2025, according to the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report.

The analysis of 116 billion transactions in 2025 shows an eight-fold global increase in this fraud type, which now accounts for 11% of all digital fraud cases.

Synthetic fraud—where criminals combine real and fabricated data to create "Frankenstein IDs"—presents a unique underwriting challenge. 

Because these identities do not belong to a real person, there is no victim to trigger an alert. 

Fraudsters are increasingly using these profiles to pass initial Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, purchase policies, and build years of legitimate-looking history before filing high-value fraudulent claims. 

In Latin America, this tactic now represents 48.3% of all reported fraud.

The report also highlights a 59% rise in malicious bot attacks, with automated tools now capable of mimicking human behaviours like cursor movements to bypass behavioural fraud detection. 

Additionally, first-party fraud—legitimate policyholders misrepresenting information for financial gain—remains the leading source of fraud globally at 38.3%. 

This trend is particularly sharp in the EMEA region, where it drives over half of all fraud reports.

Asia-Pacific continued to see strong digital transaction growth alongside rising fraud activity, with the attack rate increasing to 1.7%.

Desktop browser attacks rose sharply as fraudsters deployed more sophisticated automation tools.