Synthetic Identity Fraud Statistics 2026: Losses, Trends and Who Is Being Hit

Synthetic identity fraud statistics are hard to pin down, because most synthetic losses get written off as bad debt instead of being recorded as fraud. Many figures that circulate online are years old, recycled without a source, or impossible to trace. 

This page collects the most recent synthetic identity fraud statistics from primary sources, including TransUnion, the Federal Reserve, Deloitte, the GAO and Sumsub, with the date and source of every number so you can cite it with confidence.

If you need the background first, start with our guide to what synthetic identity fraud is and how it works.

What Are the Key Synthetic Identity Fraud Statistics for 2026?

The key synthetic identity fraud statistics for 2026 are these eight figures, covering exposure, growth, preparedness, and the AI tools driving the problem:

• 1. $2.4 billion: US lender exposure to suspected synthetic identities as of June 30, 2026 (TransUnion)
• 2. $1.5 billion of that exposure sits in auto loans, more than every other credit product combined (TransUnion)
• 3. 67% of US business leaders expect synthetic identity fraud to rise significantly relative to other fraud types over the next two years (TransUnion)
• 4. 53% of US business leaders say synthetic identity fraud is the fraud type their organisation is least prepared to manage (TransUnion)
• 5. 73% of US data breaches in H1 2026 that disclosed compromised details exposed full Social Security numbers, the raw material of synthetic identities (TransUnion)
• 6. 26% of fraud losses at Canadian businesses now come from synthetic identities, up from 18% the year before (TransUnion Canada)
• 7. 192% year-on-year rise in synthetic fraud in Nigeria in Q1 2025 (Sumsub)
• 8. $23 billion: Deloitte's projection for US synthetic identity fraud losses by 2030

How Much Does Synthetic Identity Fraud Cost Financial Institutions?

Synthetic identity fraud costs financial institutions billions of dollars a year, with four figures framing the scale: $3.3 billion in record exposure for 2024, $2.4 billion in exposure at the end of Q2 2026, and a projected $23 billion in annual losses by 2030.

Exposure and losses are different measures, and the difference matters. TransUnion's exposure figures count the credit available to suspected synthetic identities on newly opened accounts, not money already lost. The real loss figure is almost certainly higher, because financial institutions often book synthetic defaults as credit losses.

• 1. $3.3 billion: US lender exposure to synthetic identities for the year ending 2024, the highest TransUnion had recorded, according to TransUnion's research.
• 2. $2.4 billion: US lender exposure as of June 30, 2026, from TransUnion's H2 2026 Top Fraud Trends report.
• 3. $23 billion: the minimum annual US losses Deloitte's Center for Financial Services projects from synthetic identity fraud by 2030.
• 4. $58.3 billion: the global cost of fraud to financial institutions by 2030, up 153% from 5. $23 billion in 2025, in a Juniper Research forecast that names synthetic identities as a key driver.
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The older benchmarks are still useful for context. In its 2019 work on the topic, the Federal Reserve called synthetic identity fraud the fastest-growing type of financial crime in the United States, and its infographic put 2016 losses at $6 billion, with an average charge-off of $15,000 per case and 20% of credit losses tied to synthetic identities.

Which Industries Are Most Affected by Synthetic Identity Fraud?

The industries most affected by synthetic identity fraud are auto lending, bank credit cards, retail credit cards, and unsecured personal lending, in that order of exposure. Auto loans carry more than 60% of US synthetic exposure on their own.

Source: TransUnion H2 2026 Top Fraud Trends report.

Auto lending stands out because one approval unlocks a high-value asset that can be driven away and resold. Point Predictive's 2026 Auto Lending Fraud Trends Report puts total auto lending fraud exposure at a record $10.4 billion, up from $9.2 billion a year earlier, with first-party fraud making up 69% of it. The same report found bust-out fraud, the stage where synthetic identities max out credit and disappear, has grown 67% over five years.

How Fast Is Synthetic Identity Fraud Growing?

Synthetic identity fraud is growing on four fronts: more attempted account openings in the US, a rising share of fraud losses in Canada, a sharp increase in false identity cases in the UK, and triple-digit growth in parts of Africa.

• 1. United States: The share of synthetic identities among attempted account openings rose 18% in 2024 compared with 2023, according to TransUnion. Looking ahead, 67% of US business leaders expect synthetic fraud to rise significantly relative to other fraud types.
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• 2. Canada: Synthetic identities caused 26% of fraud losses in 2025, up from 18% in 2024, the largest year-on-year jump of any fraud type in TransUnion Canada's survey of 200 business leaders.
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• 3. United Kingdom: False identity cases rose 60% in 2024 and now make up 29% of all identity fraud cases, according to Experian.
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• 4. Africa: Synthetic fraud rose 192% year-on-year in Nigeria, 184% in Tanzania and 480% in South Africa in Q1 2025, according to Sumsub's Identity Fraud Report.
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The US exposure figure for mid-2026 is below the 2024 record, but these synthetic identity fraud trends for 2026 do not point to a problem that is shrinking. Business leaders expect it to grow, and the supply of stolen Social Security numbers keeps expanding.

Synthetic Identity Fraud Statistics by Country

Synthetic identity fraud statistics vary by country because each market measures the problem differently: the US tracks lender exposure, Canada tracks share of losses, the UK tracks case volumes, and African data tracks verification attempts.

For a closer look at the African picture, including how Nigerian, South African and Kenyan banks are responding, read our analysis of synthetic identity fraud at African banks.

Why Do Traditional Fraud Checks Miss Synthetic Identities?

Traditional fraud checks miss synthetic identities because they were built to catch stolen identities, and the synthetic identity fraud statistics show how wide that gap is: 85% to 95% of likely synthetic applicants passed traditional fraud models, 53% of US business leaders feel least prepared for synthetic fraud, and only 25% of UK financial services firms feel confident handling it.

• 85% to 95% of applicants identified as potential synthetic identities were not flagged by traditional fraud models, according to the Federal Reserve's 2019 infographic.
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• 53% of US business leaders say synthetic identity fraud is the category they are least prepared to manage (TransUnion, 2026).
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• 25% of UK financial services companies feel confident addressing synthetic identity fraud, and only 23% feel confident with AI and deepfake fraud (Experian survey of more than 500 firms).
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The fix is layered checks that test whether identity data belongs to one real, present person. Our guide to synthetic identity fraud detection covers the red flags and methods that close that gap.

How Is AI Changing Synthetic Identity Fraud?

AI is changing synthetic identity fraud in four measurable ways: deepfakes now make up one in five biometric fraud attempts, deepfaked selfies rose 58% in a year, injection attacks rose 40%, and digital forgeries now account for 35% of document fraud.

These synthetic identity fraud deepfake trends come from the Entrust 2026 Identity Fraud Report, covering September 2024 to September 2025.

• 1. 1 in 5 biometric fraud attempts now involves a deepfake.
• 2. 58% increase in deepfaked selfies in 2025.
• 3. 40% year-on-year increase in injection attacks, where fake images or video are fed straight into the verification system to bypass the camera.
• 4. 35% of document fraud is now digital forgery, up from an average of 29% between 2022 and 2024.
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Across the synthetic identity fraud statistics for 2025 and 2026, these are the tools that get a synthetic identity through remote onboarding: an AI-generated ID, a deepfake selfie, and an injected video stream. Document checks that only look at the image are no longer enough, which is why liveness detection has become a core control.

What Is the US Government Doing About Synthetic Identity Fraud?

The US government's main tool against synthetic identity fraud is the Social Security Administration's eCBSV service, which lets lenders confirm with consent that a name, date of birth and SSN match. A 2024 GAO report found three problems with it:

• 1. $62 million spent building and running eCBSV between FY 2018 and FY 2023.
• 2. 40% of those costs recovered through user fees by the end of FY 2023, leaving about $37 million still to recover.
• 3. No significant growth in users since enrollment opened in FY 2022.
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The same report noted that financial institutions reported $182 million in related suspicious activity in 2021. Low adoption means many lenders still rely on checks that cannot confirm an SSN belongs to the applicant.

Beating the Synthetic Identity Fraud Statistics With Youverify

The synthetic identity fraud statistics point one way: the problem is growing, AI is making fake identities cheaper, and most teams say they are not ready. The lenders that come out ahead are the ones that stop synthetic identities before an account exists, instead of finding them after the bust-out.

Youverify's Customer Onboarding solution runs document, anti-deepfake liveness, and government-source checks in one journey, scored to a risk tier. The deepfaked selfies, injected video and AI-forged documents behind the numbers above are caught at the front door.

Our Fraud Insights solution then scores device and browser fingerprint, IP spoofing, emulators, remote tools, velocity and behaviour inside the same session, so a fraud ring applying under many synthetic identities shows up as one operator. For accounts already on your books, while our  Transaction Monitoring solution flags the drawdown patterns of a bust-out in progress.

Don't become next year's statistic. Book a free demo with our fraud prevention experts to see how Youverify stops synthetic identities at the onboarding stage.

About the Author.

Temitope Lawal is the Content Marketing Manager at Youverify, where she leads content on fraud prevention, AML compliance, and identity verification. She has spent seven years turning complex financial crime topics into clear, practical guidance for risk and compliance teams who have to act on them