India's digital fraud rate nearly twice global average in 2025: TransUnion
TransUnion report reveals India's suspected digital fraud rate hit 7.1% in 2025, with rising identity based attacks and high risks in logistics and telecommunications.
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India recorded a suspected digital fraud rate of 7.1% in 2025, nearly double the global average of 3.8%, as fraudsters targeted existing user accounts and deployed more sophisticated identity-based attacks, according to a new report by TransUnion, a global consumer credit reporting agency.
The findings, published in the company's H1 2026 Top Fraud Trends Report, indicate that the nature of fraud in India is evolving beyond conventional payment scams towards identity-driven attacks, with criminals attempting to compromise legitimate user credentials.
The pattern suggests cybercriminals are increasingly focusing on gaining access to existing accounts using stolen or compromised credentials rather than creating new fraudulent accounts.
"Fraudsters are weaponising both consumer trust and emerging technologies," said Natarajan Ramani, Head of TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions (INDAS).
He noted that the scale and sophistication of fraudulent operations are growing rapidly, requiring businesses to adopt more advanced, identity-centric fraud prevention tools.
Industry-wise, logistics emerged as the most vulnerable sector in India, with 16.3% of transactions suspected to be digital fraud attempts in 2025. The telecommunications sector followed with a fraud rate of 14.7%, while insurance recorded a rate of 11.5%.
According to the report, these sectors are particularly exposed because they rely heavily on real-time interactions, distributed networks and high-frequency digital transactions, creating opportunities for fraudsters to exploit gaps in identity verification and authentication.
Anurag Anand, Head of Fraud Solutions at TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions, said fraudsters are "moving upstream" by exploiting vulnerabilities during account creation and login processes and concealing identity manipulation until financial losses begin to accumulate.
The report also noted that the telecommunications sector witnessed the biggest increase in suspected digital fraud originating from India among the industries analysed.
The analysis is based on intelligence gathered from TransUnion's fraud prevention solutions across multiple markets, including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The findings, published in the company's H1 2026 Top Fraud Trends Report, indicate that the nature of fraud in India is evolving beyond conventional payment scams towards identity-driven attacks, with criminals attempting to compromise legitimate user credentials.
Unlike global trends, where account creation remains the riskiest stage in the digital consumer journey, India saw the highest fraud risk during account logins. Around 3.9% of account login transactions in India in 2025 were suspected to be fraudulent, compared with 3.1% for account creation and 1.2% for financial transactions.
The pattern suggests cybercriminals are increasingly focusing on gaining access to existing accounts using stolen or compromised credentials rather than creating new fraudulent accounts.
"Fraudsters are weaponising both consumer trust and emerging technologies," said Natarajan Ramani, Head of TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions (INDAS).
He noted that the scale and sophistication of fraudulent operations are growing rapidly, requiring businesses to adopt more advanced, identity-centric fraud prevention tools.
Industry-wise, logistics emerged as the most vulnerable sector in India, with 16.3% of transactions suspected to be digital fraud attempts in 2025. The telecommunications sector followed with a fraud rate of 14.7%, while insurance recorded a rate of 11.5%.
According to the report, these sectors are particularly exposed because they rely heavily on real-time interactions, distributed networks and high-frequency digital transactions, creating opportunities for fraudsters to exploit gaps in identity verification and authentication.
Anurag Anand, Head of Fraud Solutions at TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions, said fraudsters are "moving upstream" by exploiting vulnerabilities during account creation and login processes and concealing identity manipulation until financial losses begin to accumulate.
The report also noted that the telecommunications sector witnessed the biggest increase in suspected digital fraud originating from India among the industries analysed.
The analysis is based on intelligence gathered from TransUnion's fraud prevention solutions across multiple markets, including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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