Logistics, Telecom and Insurance Face India’s Highest Digital Fraud Risk, TransUnion Finds

MUMBAI, June 16: Logistics, telecommunications and insurance are facing the highest levels of digital fraud risk in India, according to a new analysis by TransUnion that found 7.1% of transactions involving Indian consumers in 2025 were suspected fraud attempts, nearly double the global average of 3.8%.

The findings were published in TransUnion’s H1 2026 Top Fraud Trends Report, released in Mumbai on Monday. The report highlights a growing shift toward identity-driven fraud, with cybercriminals increasingly using sophisticated techniques to bypass traditional fraud detection systems.

Logistics Leads, Telecom and Insurance Close Behind

Among the sectors analyzed, logistics recorded India’s highest suspected digital fraud rate at 16.3%, followed by telecommunications at 14.7% and insurance at 11.5%.

According to TransUnion, these industries are particularly vulnerable because they depend heavily on real-time interactions, distributed networks and high-frequency transactions. Such operating environments can create weaknesses in identity verification and authentication processes that fraudsters can exploit.

“Fraudsters are weaponizing both consumer trust and emerging technologies,” said Natarajan Ramani, Head of TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions (INDAS).

“As the scale and sophistication of fraudulent operations continue to grow, the threat landscape is evolving faster than ever. Addressing this requires a new generation of identity-centric defenses that combine advanced analytics, adaptive authentication and multilayered fraud detection. Organizations must match fraudsters’ technological innovation to stay ahead of rapidly changing schemes.”

Login Attacks Overtake Account Creation in India

Globally, account creation remains the riskiest stage of the digital consumer lifecycle, with 8.3% of account creation attempts suspected to be fraudulent in 2025.

India, however, presents a different pattern.

The report found that fraud risk in India is most concentrated at the account login stage, where 3.9% of attempts were flagged as suspicious. Account creation followed at 3.1%, while financial transactions recorded a suspected fraud rate of 1.2%.

The trend suggests that attackers are increasingly targeting existing accounts using stolen credentials rather than attempting to create new fraudulent accounts.

“Fraudsters are moving upstream,” said Anurag Anand, Head of Fraud Solutions at TransUnion India Data Analytics Solutions (INDAS).

“They increasingly exploit vulnerabilities at account creation and login, concealing identity manipulation until losses mount. These methods enable criminals to evade rules-based systems built for a different threat environment. To keep pace, businesses need intelligence-driven, proactive solutions to detect sophisticated identity risks at onboarding.”

Telecom Sector Shows Fastest Growth in Fraud Risk

The report also identified telecommunications as the sector experiencing the sharpest year-on-year increase in suspected digital fraud among all industries studied in India.

While TransUnion did not disclose the magnitude of the increase, the finding is significant given that telecom already records the country’s second-highest fraud rate.

The report suggests that telecom operators may need to accelerate investments in identity verification, authentication and fraud prevention technologies as digital threats continue to evolve.

India is one of 24 markets included in TransUnion’s global fraud analysis, which draws on intelligence gathered through the company’s fraud prevention network.

The report concludes that traditional rules-based fraud detection systems are increasingly ineffective against modern identity-focused threats, underscoring the need for more adaptive and intelligence-driven security frameworks across high-risk industries.