Fraudsters Move Beyond Verification as Suspicious iGaming Transactions Surge 4.5-Fold

Now in its third consecutive year, the report analyses more than three million fraud attempts detected during iGaming verification processes, providing a detailed overview of how fraud patterns have evolved between 2024 and 2026.

The scale and sophistication of fraud targeting the iGaming sector continues to accelerate, according to the latest findings from verification and compliance specialist Sumsub.

In its newly released iGaming Fraud Report 2026, the company highlights a significant shift in criminal activity across the industry, with fraudsters increasingly moving beyond initial account verification checks and deeper into player accounts, payment systems and platform ecosystems.

Among the report's most striking findings is a 4.5-fold increase in suspicious transaction volumes between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026. During the same period, the average value of a suspicious transaction rose from $3,960 (€3,664) to $6,500 (€6,002), highlighting the growing financial impact of fraudulent activity.

The global iGaming fraud rate reached 1.53% of all verification attempts in the first quarter of 2026, representing an 18% year-on-year increase and a rise of almost 40% compared with 2024 levels.

Despite the growing threat, legitimate players are benefiting from faster onboarding processes. Sumsub found that verification speeds for genuine users have doubled over the past year, while fraudsters are taking significantly longer to complete verification attempts. On average, fraudulent actors now spend 4.6 times longer attempting to pass checks than legitimate customers, a trend that suggests attacks are becoming increasingly deliberate and manually orchestrated.

The report also points to the growing use of artificial intelligence in fraud schemes. Common attack methods now include AI-generated identity documents, deepfakes, face-swapping technology, large-scale account farming operations, proxy infrastructure, behavioural masking techniques and attempts to bypass liveness checks through injection tools. Fraudsters are also exploiting prediction markets and leveraging fraud-as-a-service networks to conduct bot-driven attacks and multi-site arbitrage strategies.

Document fraud remains a major concern. Since 2024, fraudulent ID card submissions have increased by 27% globally, with 2.1% of all ID card checks now identified as fraudulent. Passports continue to be the most commonly forged document type, recording a fraud rate of 2.2%.

Regional disparities remain significant. Africa recorded the highest fraud rate at 2.54%, while North America reported the lowest at 0.44%, creating a gap of almost six times between the two regions.

Fraud Has Moved Beyond the Front Door

According to Sumsub, fraud prevention strategies focused solely on onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks are no longer sufficient.

The overall fraud rate has climbed from 1.10% in 2024 to 1.53% in Q1 2026, but the nature of attacks has changed even more dramatically. Fraud that successfully passes initial verification stages is now considerably more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago.

"Today, every step of the verification process faces attacks from advanced fakes," the report notes.

"Identifying these fraudsters demands more than a single, precise check. For fraud prevention teams, it is now more about connecting weak signals than catching one obvious red flag."

The findings reinforce the growing need for continuous monitoring, multi-layered security measures and ongoing verification throughout the entire player journey, as operators face an increasingly complex battle against AI-powered fraud.

More iGaming News: