TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) has recently indicated that artificial intelligence is transforming the tactics of online criminals, financial institutions and everyday users are confronting a more cunning and costly threat environment. TransUnion’s mid-year 2026 supplement to its flagship fraud trends analysis reveals that identity-centric attacks and payment-card misuse now dominate consumer losses, driven by generative AI tools that let scammers operate with unprecedented speed and precision.
In the United States, roughly one in six adults reported losing money to digital scams—whether through email, websites, phone calls, or text messages—over the past year.
The median reported loss reached $2,307. Worldwide, across 18 surveyed countries and regions, 26 percent of consumers suffered similar setbacks, with a median hit of $1,671.
Stolen credit-card information and resulting fraudulent charges stood out as the single largest source of harm in the US, cited by one-third of victims—far exceeding the global figure of 19 percent.
Other major contributors domestically included identity theft (29 percent), account takeovers (27 percent), and deceptive third-party sellers operating on legitimate e-commerce platforms (24 percent).
Younger adults bore the brunt of these schemes. Generation Z consumers proved most susceptible globally (39 percent reported losses) and nearly as vulnerable in the United States (38 percent).
Their frequent activity on gaming platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and social-media apps appears to make them prime targets for sophisticated social-engineering ploys.
A paradoxical pattern emerged in the data: overall rates of suspected digital fraud declined among TransUnion clients in both the US and globally.
Yet actual consumer losses climbed, signaling that perpetrators have pivoted toward higher-return schemes.
Rather than striking at the point of transaction, fraudsters are “moving upstream” by infiltrating the account-creation process.
Globally, suspicious activity during new-account onboarding jumped 18 percent year-over-year in 2025.
This early-stage infiltration lets criminals embed manipulated identities that evade conventional rule-based filters until substantial damage accumulates.
Industry exposure varied sharply. Online communities (including dating and forum sites) saw suspected fraud attempts reach 11.7 percent, up 7 percent from the prior year.
Gaming held steady at 9.8 percent, while video gaming, retail, financial services, logistics, and travel and leisure recorded steep volume declines. Government-related fraud attempts rose 19 percent, underscoring shifting pressure points across the economy.
Naureen Ali, TransUnion’s U.S. head of fraud, noted that criminals now weaponize consumer trust and emerging technologies at scale. She stressed the urgency of deploying identity-centric defenses that blend advanced analytics, adaptive authentication, and multi-layered detection to match the pace of innovation.
Ali also highlighted the upstream shift, urging businesses to adopt proactive, intelligence-driven tools capable of spotting synthetic or manipulated identities at the onboarding stage.
Margaret Poe, TransUnion’s head of consumer credit education, reminded individuals that vigilance remains essential. She recommended routine credit-report reviews and, for those who suspect compromise, placing a freeze on credit files with the major bureaus.
The report concluded that declining raw fraud volumes mask a deeper evolution toward stealthier, AI-augmented attacks that deliver bigger payoffs. For organizations and consumers, the path forward lies in layered, technology-forward protections that prioritize identity integrity from the very first interaction.