New comprehensive analysis reveals rising identity theft rates, an unprecedented bot attack, and the growing maturity of assumed identity abuse

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SentiLink, the leading provider of identity verification and fraud detection solutions, today released its third SentiLink Fraud Report: Identity Fraud Rates & Trends, covering the second half of 2025. The report is a comprehensive benchmark analysis of more than 236 million account applications across credit cards, auto lending, consumer lending, deposit accounts (DDAs), and telecommunications -- and introduces, for the first time, a first-party fraud rate.

The report reveals a fraud landscape that is growing more volatile, driven by large-scale coordinated attacks and the continued maturation of the online identity theft marketplace.

Key findings over the last six months include:

• Identity theft rates climbed over the half, reaching their highest point of 2025 during the December holiday season, with a peak rate of 6.75% in the week of Christmas;
• An unprecedented bot attack flooded auto lenders with thousands of applications per day, briefly pushing identity theft rates at one major partner to nearly 35%;
• DDA identity theft broke 10% for the first time, driven by a combination of targeted fraud attacks and seasonal declines in legitimate application volume;
• Telecom fraud rates remained elevated, peaking around the launch of the iPhone 17 in September, with identity theft and synthetic fraud both spiking across mobile phone partners;
• Assumed Identity Abuse (AIA) is on the rise, with online marketplaces openly advertising "expat" identities and evidence of organized criminal activity;
• First-party fraud averaged just above 3% overall, remaining relatively stable, consistent with its nature as a largely solitary rather than coordinated act;
• The synthetic fraud rate declined slightly over the course of the half, dropping from roughly 67 basis points to 48 basis points, for an average of 58 bps.

The report also details several notable fraud trends, including the targeting of professional athlete identities for identity theft, the rise of FAFSA fraud and "Pell running" at community colleges, and the growing use of legacy PII in targeted attacks designed to evade contact-detail fraud signals.

"The second half of 2025 surfaced some of our most interesting insights to date, from bot attacks on auto lenders to DDA identity theft breaking double digits," said Naftali Harris, co-founder and CEO of SentiLink. "Because we sit at the intersection of hundreds of financial institutions, telecoms, and other partners, we see these patterns emerge in real time. This report is our way of sharing our deep understanding with the industry, and I'm proud of what the team has put together."

Industry-Specific Findings:

• Credit Cards: Mean identity theft rate of 2.82%, with coordinated spikes in July and August linked to a suspected Massachusetts fraud ring;
• Auto Lending: Mean identity theft rate of 4.21%, heavily influenced by a bot attack that flooded one major partner with more than 10,000 fraudulent applications per day;
• Other Consumer Lending: Lowest fraud rates overall, with a mean identity theft rate of 0.75%, though a December attack using "same-name fraud" caused a notable spike;
• Demand Deposit Accounts: Mean identity theft rate above 10%, a new high for this industry in SentiLink's reporting;
• Telecommunications: Among the highest fraud rates of any industry, with identity theft averaging above 9% and synthetic fraud elevated throughout the half.

The report includes detailed fraud signal analyses, geographic heat maps, time-of-day and day-of-week breakdowns, case studies, and a transparent methodology appendix. It is based on SentiLink's observations across more than 500 partners, including 11 of the top 15 U.S. banks, 6 of the top 10 credit unions, and 2 of the top 3 U.S. telecoms.

The SentiLink Fraud Report: Identity Fraud Rates & Trends, 2H 2025 is available now.

Download the full report here.

About SentiLink

SentiLink, the leading provider of innovative identity verification and fraud prevention solutions, empowers organizations to accurately identify customers and detect synthetic fraud, identity theft, and other hard-to-detect forms of identity fraud. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company was founded in 2017 by Naftali Harris and Max Blumenfeld and has raised $85M to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Craft Ventures, and NYCA Partners. Every day, SentiLink verifies 3M+ identities and flags 85k+ high-risk applications to help partners reduce fraud losses and verify more legitimate customers.

Media Contact:

Jason Kratovil
jason@sentilink.com

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SOURCE SentiLink