Increasingly prevalent artificial intelligence tools have led impersonation scam volumes to increase by 148% year-over-year amid a reduction in reported identity crimes between April 2024 and March 2025, Infosecurity Magazine reports.
More than a third of identity fraud incidents have been attributed to impersonation scams, compared with 10% and 9% that involved employment fraud and Google Voice scams, respectively, findings from the Identity Theft Resource Center's 2025 Trends in Identity Report showed. Meanwhile, businesses were the leading targets of impersonation schemes that often entailed phishing and SEO poisoning, followed by financial organizations and government entities, with the latter experiencing a 32% year-over-year drop in such activity. AI has been noted by ITRC CEO Eva Velasquez to have enabled at-scale deployment of more sophisticated identity fraud campaigns. "The power of AI in the hands of professional criminals is accelerating a shift we've long warned about where traditional crime patterns give way to a landscape in which anyone can be a victim," said Velasquez.
More than a third of identity fraud incidents have been attributed to impersonation scams, compared with 10% and 9% that involved employment fraud and Google Voice scams, respectively, findings from the Identity Theft Resource Center's 2025 Trends in Identity Report showed. Meanwhile, businesses were the leading targets of impersonation schemes that often entailed phishing and SEO poisoning, followed by financial organizations and government entities, with the latter experiencing a 32% year-over-year drop in such activity. AI has been noted by ITRC CEO Eva Velasquez to have enabled at-scale deployment of more sophisticated identity fraud campaigns. "The power of AI in the hands of professional criminals is accelerating a shift we've long warned about where traditional crime patterns give way to a landscape in which anyone can be a victim," said Velasquez.
