Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Cybercrime Trends In 2025 Show Rising Global Fraud Risks
Synthetic identities, AI-driven bots, login attacks, and browser-based fraud are reshaping today’s cybercrime trends. In 2025, cybercrime became more severe as fraud attacks grew faster than legitimate digital activity in key industries. LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported that its Digital Identity Network analyzed over 116 billion transactions, a 12% increase from the previous year. The report showed an 8% rise in human-initiated attacks and a 59% jump in automated bot attacks. E-commerce, gaming, and gambling were hit hardest, with e-commerce attack rates up 64% and gaming and gambling attack rates up 76%.
A major change was seen in attack channels. In 2025, desktop browser attack rates doubled to 4.3%, while mobile app attack rates dropped 56% to 0.4%. This suggests that many organizations have strengthened their mobile security, causing fraudsters to focus on browsers, where attacks can be scaled and hidden in regular web traffic. The report recorded 1.8 billion human-initiated attacks and 4.9 billion automated bot attacks.
Stephen Topliss, vice president of fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said, “Fraud continues to evolve at pace with digital innovation.” He added that attackers now use “advanced bots and AI-driven tools to mimic human behavior” and test defenses at an unusual pace. That warning fits the report’s broader message. Criminal networks are moving fast and probing every point in the digital journey.
Cybercrime Trends Shift As Bots And Synthetic Identity Fraud Grow
The report highlights a big shift in cybercrime: synthetic identity fraud has become a top threat. LexisNexis said it made up 11% of reported fraud in 2025. The press release called it the fastest-growing fraud type worldwide, with an eightfold increase from the previous year. In comparison, true identity theft made up only 6% of reported fraud.
Synthetic fraud poses unique challenges for insurers, banks, and merchants. Criminals may spend months creating convincing identities by mixing stolen data, fake histories, and generative AI cybercrime tools. The report notes that these synthetic identities often include fake backup records, making them harder to detect and increasing losses. In Latin America, the problem is especially severe, with synthetic identity fraud making up 48.3% of reported fraud, according to the report.
LexisNexis also noted a sharp increase in agentic commerce. Early in 2025, this type of traffic was minimal, but by the fourth quarter, it had grown by 450% compared to the first quarter. Most of this activity was seen in e-commerce credit card payments, with a smaller amount in gaming and gambling logins. The company said there was no clear evidence of malicious intent in all this traffic, but warned that fraud teams now need to distinguish between humans, bots, and autonomous agents.
Topliss said cybercriminals are experimenting with the same technologies that are reshaping digital commerce. He said successful organizations “must be able to confidently distinguish between humans, bots and agents.”
Cybercrime Trends Across Account Creation, Login, And Payment Channels
The report breaks down risk across onboarding, login, payment, and other key points. New account creation was still the riskiest event, with LexisNexis reporting that one in every 11 new accounts was attacked. Password resets were next, with a 6.6% attack rate. These numbers are important because both steps can lead to account takeovers and more fraud.
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Login activity was the biggest concern. The global login attack rate increased by 89% over the year, reaching 1.2%. E-commerce had the highest login attack rate at 10.8%, growing by more than 200%. This jump shows that fraudsters highly value stored credentials, loyalty points, payment methods, and customer identities. In contrast, payment attack rates dropped 31% to 3.2%, thanks to a sharp decline in mobile app payment attacks.
The report also points to a wider focus in monitoring. For the first time, over 10% of reviewed events happened outside traditional stages like onboarding, login, and payment. Clients are now watching password resets, device registrations, detail changes, chatbot use, and other signals. This broader view matches current cybercrime trends, as fraud now affects the whole customer journey, not just the checkout.
Regional Cybercrime Trends Across North America, EMEA, APAC, And LATAM
Regional data showed different speeds and patterns of attacks in each market. North America stayed steady at a 2.2% attack rate, despite repeated e-commerce spikes. EMEA saw its first major increase in years, with its attack rate rising 27% to 0.7%, which LexisNexis linked to more account takeover attempts and higher authentication pressure. APAC’s attack rate rose to 1.7%, above the global average, mainly due to more desktop browser attacks. LATAM also reached 1.7%, driven by instant payments, fraud networks, and synthetic identities. These differences show how attack trends and causes vary by region.
Cybercrime Trends By Industry: E-commerce, Gaming, And Financial Services
Industry data showed mixed results. Financial services improved, with attack rates dropping by 23%. Communications, mobile, and media had the highest overall attack rate at 5.2%, though this was lower than last year. E-commerce, gaming, and gambling saw increases in both transaction volume and attacks, making them key areas of concern for cyber insurers and security leaders.
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LexisNexis described fraud rings testing stolen cards across countries and institutions. The report also highlighted UK consortium efforts and inter-bank notifications that help identify mule activity faster. As Topliss noted, “Organizations that share risk intelligence are best positioned to protect consumers and build trust in the digital economy.” That may be the clearest lesson in this year’s cybercrime trends: criminals already share tactics at scale, so defenders now need the same network effect.
Cybercrime Summary
In summary, the latest cybercrime trends reveal a fraud landscape that is growing quickly, becoming more advanced, and using more automation. LexisNexis Risk Solutions found more bot activity, a sharp rise in synthetic identity fraud, and more attacks on login and account creation. The report also shows that attackers are moving between browsers, mobile platforms, and new agentic commerce tools as defenses get better. For cyber insurers, security leaders, and digital businesses, the key message is clear: stronger detection, wider visibility, and shared intelligence are now essential for managing cyber risk.
FAQ LexisNexis Cybercrime Trend Report
It says cybercrime trends worsened in 2025, with higher bot activity, login attacks, and synthetic identity fraud.
Synthetic identity fraud grew fastest and became a major global concern.
Bots now use AI cybercrime tools to mimic human behavior and test defenses at high speed. And then there are AI deepfakes.
Desktop browser attacks rose sharply as criminals moved away from better-defended mobile apps.
New account creation remained the riskiest core event in the report.
Yes. Login attack rates rose strongly, especially in e-commerce.
It refers to automated digital interactions from agents, which may be legitimate or malicious.
North America stayed elevated, while EMEA, APAC, and LATAM all showed important risk shifts.
It shows fraud risk now spreads across the full customer journey and can drive broader losses.
They need stronger detection, wider visibility, and better intelligence sharing to keep pace with evolving threats.
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