Singapore – As 2024 marked a significant election year worldwide, Sumsub, a full-cycle verification provider, reported that a 245% year-on-year increase in deepfakes across the world was observed, with countries in Asia Pacific surpassing the global average growth.
In this report, Sumsub noted a substantial increase in deepfake cases, including in countries holding elections this year such as South Korea (1625%), Indonesia (1550%), and India (280%).
Interestingly, even in countries without elections in 2024, deepfake cases still rose significantly, including China (2800%), Singapore (1100%), Hong Kong (1000%), and Vietnam (541%).
Other findings from Sumsub further include that China had the highest absolute number of deepfake instances detected globally in Q1 2024. Identity document forgery, on the other hand, emerged as the most common type of fraud, accounting for 25% of all fraud cases in Singapore and 45% in Indonesia.
Additionally, the report also found that identity fraud rates in the fintech sector increased by 216% YoY in Hong Kong, 142% in Singapore, 138% in Thailand, and 108% in Malaysia.
In crypto, the fraud rate grew YoY by 160% in Indonesia (reaching a record 7.23% of all verifications), 71% in Singapore, and 106% in Thailand.
Vyacheslav Zholudev, co-founder and CTO at Sumsub, said, “As we witness the escalating prevalence of deepfakes, it becomes increasingly clear that these challenges extend beyond business realms. They reflect the broader landscape of the wider digital world, where fighting misinformation, the spread of AI-generated scams, and online fraud is imperative to safeguarding society.”
Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, head of AI/ML at Sumsub, also stated, “The number and quality of deepfakes is increasing and evolving daily worldwide. Even with the most progressive technology, it’s getting much harder to differentiate between a deepfake and reality. The only way forward is to fight AI with AI.”
“For businesses, the ultimate tool that keeps them protected is a multi-layered anti-fraud solution with different checks at various user journey stages. But content platforms and common users remain vulnerable to deepfakes, especially in light of the 2024 elections,” continued Pavel.
“Media platforms must stay vigilant, remaining aware and updating defences to detect deepfakes and prevent AI-generated fraud. They need to make sure they are not inadvertently contributing to the spread of misinformation,” he ended.
