In 2024, every second business globally reported incidents of deepfake fraud, revealing a growing trend in AI-related crimes over the past two years. Meanwhile, fraud involving fake or modified documents now outpaces AI-generated scams.

According to a new survey* “The Deepfake Trends 2024” commissioned global developer of forensic devices and identity verification solutions Regula there has been a significant rise in the prevalence of video deepfakes, with a 20per cent increase in companies reporting incidents compared to 2022.

While 29 per cent of fraud decision-makers across Australia, France, Germany, Mexico, Turkey, UAE, UK, and the USA reported encountering video deepfake fraud in 2022, this year’s data — covering the USA, UAE, Mexico, Singapore, and Germany — shows this figure has surged to 49 per cent. This sharp increase across the revised cohort underscores the growing challenge of video deepfakes and their continued threat to businesses.

Audio deepfakes are also on the rise, with a 12 per cent increase compared to 2022 survey data.

The survey also reveals industrial and regional differences regarding companies’ experience with deepfake threats. Audio deepfakes prevail over video among the three of the surveyed sectors, including Financial Services (51 per cent), Aviation (52 per cent), and Crypto (55 per cent).

At the same time, law enforcement (56 per cent), technology (57 per cent), and fintech (57 per cent) are reporting more face video scams.

The UAE and Singapore show higher susceptibility to deepfake fraud, with 56per cent of businesses in the UAE experiencing video deepfakes and 56 per cent of companies in Singapore encountering audio deepfakes. This is above the global average. In contrast, Mexico reported the lowest impact, with only 35 per cent and 38 per cent of businesses encountering video and audio deepfakes, respectively.

While video deepfakes have seen the most significant jump over the two years (+20per per cent), all other identity-related fraud has also grown, and some of its forms are more common than AI-generated scams.

Regula’s survey shows that 58 percent of businesses globally have experienced identity fraud in the form of fake or modified documents. This happens to be the top identity fraud method for Mexico (70 per cent), the UAE (66 per cent), the US (59 per cent), and Germany (59 per cent). This implies that not only do businesses have to adapt their verification methods to deal with new threats, but they are also forced to combat old threats that continue to pose a significant challenge.

Interestingly, in a country more exposed to deepfakes, Singapore, this “traditional” threat is much lower than in the world: only 43 percent of businesses there reported having dealt with fake or tampered IDs.