This is the opinion of Spanish business leaders who have participated in a TransUnion study on the state of digital fraud, which reveals that fraud committed with synthetic identities is the fastest growing fraud pattern in our country.
The report is based on a survey carried out among 1,600 business leaders from eight countries, including 200 in Spain. According to the study, Spanish participants estimate that losses due to fraud are equivalent to 6.3% of their companies’ annual income, compared to the 6.5% estimated by all respondents globally. This situation shows that fraud continues to have a direct and significant effect on business results.
Furthermore, according to TransUnion analysis, 59% of business leaders surveyed in Spain say they are very or extremely concerned about the impact of fraud on their business. Although this percentage is below that recorded globally, it confirms that fraud is a strategic concern for the majority of companies in Spain.
Fraud diversifies without a dominant risk in Spain
One of the most differential aspects of the Spanish market compared to the rest of the world is the distribution of the different types of fraud. While the study shows that, globally, authorized fraud (or scam) clearly stands out as the main cause of losses due to fraud, in Spain there is no single dominant vector.
First-party fraud and third-party fraud register the greatest weight in Spain, with 20% each for the business leaders surveyed (compared to 15% and 17%, respectively, in global terms), while fraud committed through synthetic identities, authorized fraud (or scam) and account theft account for 19% (compared to 18%, 29% and 17%, respectively, in global terms).
This distribution paints a considerably more diversified threat landscape, so organizations must maintain a protection strategy capable of simultaneously responding to multiple types of fraud, rather than concentrating their efforts on a single predominant risk.
“Although the currently estimated losses due to fraud are distributed quite equally by types of fraud, the expectations of Spanish organizations show a much more defined evolution,” says Lisette González, general director of TransUnion Spain. “70% of the business leaders surveyed in Spain place fraud with synthetic identities among the three modalities that will grow the most in the next two years, above account theft (for 62%) or authorized fraud or scam (for 61%). This means that companies are anticipating the evolution of a fraud in which the manipulation of identities will play an increasingly relevant role.”
The web and mobile apps, main targets for account theft
Respondents identify web browsers (33%) and mobile apps (24%) as the primary initiation channels for account takeover attacks. These results underscore the importance of protecting access and account management across digital channels.
The protection of these channels thus acquires increasing relevance, especially in a context where the anticipated threats are increasingly oriented towards the compromise of existing identities and accounts.
The evolution of authentication mechanisms also reflects how fraudsters are attempting to exploit identities after they are verified, communications after they are sent, and relationships after they are established. When asked about the primary method of customer authentication, Spanish business leaders said they primarily used passkeys (25%) and biometrics (24%), over passwords (23%).
As a second authentication factor, single-use codes (30%) are by far the most used mechanism by Spanish business leaders. The PIN was the second method named by only 19%.
The evolution of authentication mechanisms also reflects how fraudsters are attempting to exploit identities after they have been verified.
Taken together, the results obtained from the state of fraud report show a gradual transition towards more robust authentication models, with less dependence on traditional passwords and a greater orientation towards mechanisms capable of more reliably verifying the user’s identity.
“In general terms, Spain maintains a behavior aligned with the trends observed in the study as a whole, although it presents its own characteristics that are especially relevant and that can be used by Spanish companies to improve their fraud strategies,” González concludes.
