Smile ID, a leading verification company in Africa, has released its 2025 Digital Identity Fraud in Africa Report.
The report is based on an analysis of over 110 million identity verification checks across multiple industries in Africa from January to December 2024.
The findings highlight how vulnerabilities are being exploited, especially with the rise of AI-powered fraud techniques, and provide strategies for businesses to safeguard public trust.
Last year’s report highlighted the most attacked ID document in Africa with South Africa’s green book topping the chart.
“The future of fraud prevention lies in adaptability. AI provides fraudsters with new tools of attack, but it also gives security practitioners the ability to leverage global intelligence to stop zero-day attacks and automate processes that previously required manual intervention,” said Mark Straub, CEO of Smile ID.
Key Takeaways from the Report
- East Africa Leads with a 27% Rejection Rate Due to Document Reliance: East Africa recorded the highest biometric and document verification rejection rate in Africa, surging from 16% to 27% year-over-year. This spike is attributed to outdated, inconsistent, and poor-quality identity documents that hinder verification.
- Financial Sector Faces the Highest Fraud Exposure: The financial sector remains the prime target for fraud. Digital banks recorded the highest fraud attempts at 35% of all biometric and document verifications in 2024, followed by microfinance institutions at 30%. Fraudsters are increasingly using identity farming, account takeovers, and money laundering schemes.
- Biometric Fraud Hits a Quarterly All-Time High of 16%: Biometric fraud attempts reached a quarterly average of 16% in 2024, marking the highest rate in three years. The surge is driven by sophisticated AI-powered attacks, emphasizing the need for businesses to strengthen biometric security.
- Fraud 4x Higher at Authentication Than Registration: Fraud attempts during user authentication were four times higher than during registration in 2024. This trend highlights account takeovers as a growing threat beyond just fake account creation.
- Dynamic Liveness Detection; The Best Defence Against AI-Driven Fraud: To combat deepfakes, generative AI faces, and replay attacks, businesses must adopt dynamic liveness detection. While it may introduce some friction to the user experience, real-time, unpredictable prompts significantly enhance fraud prevention.
- SDKs Detect Twice as Much Fraud as Other Integration Methods: Fraud detection through mobile SDKs accounted for 68% of all fraud cases, compared to 32% from other integration methods. This underscores the increasing adoption of mobile SDKs for fraud prevention and their higher effectiveness in detecting fraudulent activity.
Download the full report to explore more insights.
Source: Smile ID
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