Online gambling fraud attempts worldwide rose 4.5 times between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, while fraud rates in Asia Pacific fell. This was revealed when more than 3 million fraud attempts were reviewed.
Asia Pacific recorded the largest regional fall in fraud rates, dropping 45% from 3.49% in 2024 to 1.92% in the first quarter of 2026. The regional rate still remained above the global average of 1.53%.
Fraud moves beyond account registration
Fraudsters are moving beyond basic account registration attacks. More activity now targets accounts after users complete Know Your Customer checks.
About 76% of fraud cases in Asia Pacific occurred after the KYC stage. The main risks included the use of accounts to move illegal funds, bonus abuse and account activity linked to fake or manipulated identities.
Fraud groups are using artificial intelligence to create documents, synthetic faces and altered videos. These tools can help criminals pass basic onboarding checks before attempting more serious fraud inside gambling platforms.
Deepfakes account for most cases
Selfie fraud and deepfakes made up 66.15% of fraud cases in Asia Pacific. The report linked the increase to face swaps, liveness-check bypass tools, proxy networks, bots and account farms.
Fraudsters are also taking more time to complete identity verification. Globally, suspicious users spent 4.6 times longer on verification than legitimate customers and made 20% to 30% more attempts.
The average value of suspicious gambling transactions increased to $6,500 from $3,960 a year earlier. The increase shows that fraud groups are targeting higher-value transactions after gaining access to verified accounts.
Cambodia and Singapore among high-risk markets
Cambodia, American Samoa, Singapore, South Korea, Bangladesh and Japan recorded the highest fraud rates in the Asia Pacific region. Sumsub linked the regional decline in overall fraud rates to stronger oversight in markets including Australia, Macao, New Zealand and the Philippines.
The Philippines is introducing tighter anti-fraud requirements for business-to-business online gambling infrastructure providers. The rules are part of compliance changes in the country’s regulated gaming market. Operators in the region face different licensing and identity-check requirements. Fraud risks can rise where platforms rely only on one-time account verification instead of ongoing checks.
Operators increase monitoring
Sumsub recommended that gambling operators monitor customers throughout the full account lifecycle. The company said operators should combine device, IP address, email, phone and fraud data to identify suspicious patterns.
Online gambling operators need stronger identity checks when accounts are opened and greater use of digital identity tools. Operators are facing pressure to detect fraud after registration, when verified accounts can be used for larger transactions and coordinated abuse.