LexisNexis Risk Solutions reported that cybercrime attack rates in Asia-Pacific rose 12% year on year to 1.7%, pushing the region above the global average of 1.6%.
The increase was most visible in desktop browser channels, where attacks climbed 25% to 6.9%, driven by more sophisticated automated activity.
The figures are part of the group’s latest Cybercrime Report, which analysed more than 116 billion online transactions during 2025 through its Digital Identity Network. Across all markets, it found an 8% rise in global fraud rates, with pressure concentrated in eCommerce, gaming and gambling, and account access points such as logins.
One of the sharpest shifts was in synthetic identity fraud. More than one in 10 fraud cases now involve a synthetic identity, an eight-fold increase from a year earlier, making it the fastest-growing fraud type in the dataset.
Synthetic identity fraud involves creating new false identities using stolen or mixed personal data. Unlike shorter-term fraud, it can take months to establish and can be used across several types of crime without triggering an immediate complaint from a direct victim.
First-party fraud remained the most commonly reported fraud type globally for a second straight year, accounting for 38.3% of reported cases. Regional patterns differed sharply, however. First-party fraud made up 51.7% of cases in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while synthetic identity fraud accounted for 48.3% in Latin America.
Login pressure
The report pointed to a steep rise in attacks targeting account access. Globally, the fraud attack rate at login increased 216% year on year, while the eCommerce fraud attack rate rose 64%.
These patterns suggest account takeover remains a central method for criminals seeking access to consumer profiles, payment details and stored credentials. Growth in these attacks was recorded across all regions, with particularly strong increases in the US, Canada and APAC.
Gaming and gambling also emerged as a major area of concern. The global attack rate on gaming and gambling sites rose 76% during 2025, reflecting the sector’s exposure to rapid digital transactions and frequent login activity.
Bot activity
The study also tracked a 59% increase in malicious bot attacks over the year. Bot operators are increasingly able to imitate human behaviour in ways designed to bypass behavioural fraud checks, including reproducing cursor movements and other on-screen actions with a high degree of plausibility.
Alongside that trend, so-called agentic traffic rose 450% between January and December 2025. This traffic was mainly linked to credit card payments and logins at gaming and gambling sites. While there was no indication it was malicious, its emergence adds another layer of complexity for fraud detection teams.
That distinction matters because online systems now face a broader mix of genuine users, conventional bots and newer automated agents. For risk teams, the challenge is no longer just spotting obvious scripted behaviour, but also determining the intent behind increasingly realistic digital interactions.
Regional trends were uneven. North America saw periodic spikes in eCommerce fraud, although its overall attack rate held roughly steady at 2.2%. In EMEA, the attack rate rose 27% year on year, the first significant increase in several years, driven largely by account takeover attempts.
APAC, by contrast, combined strong digital transaction growth with a rising fraud rate, shaped by a marked increase in attacks through desktop browsers as fraudsters deployed more advanced automation tools.
In Latin America, fraud patterns were more varied across industries, but concern over synthetic identity fraud is growing as digital services expand and regulated online gaming markets develop.
“Fraud continues to evolve at pace with digital innovation,” said Stephen Topliss, Vice President of Fraud and Identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
“While organizations are strengthening defenses across channels, cybercriminal networks are scaling automation, shifting tactics and probing for any available weaknesses across the digital customer journey. Increasingly, attackers rely on advanced bots and AI-driven tools to mimic human behavior and test defenses with unprecedented speed and accuracy,” Topliss said.
The methodology covered transactions ranging from new account creation and login attempts to payments, password resets and transfers. That broad scope offers a view not only of payment fraud, but also of the earlier stages of digital attacks, when credentials, device signals and behavioural patterns are tested before money moves.
“Cybercriminals are experimenting with the same technologies that are transforming digital commerce and organizations must prepare for a future where both legitimate users and malicious actors rely on automated agents to interact online. Those that succeed must be able to confidently distinguish between humans, bots and agents as well as determining intent. We continue to see increasing collaboration between organizations with global digital intelligence, advanced analytics and strong cross-industry partnerships. Organisations that share risk intelligence are best positioned to protect consumers and build trust in the digital economy,” Topliss said.
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