Methodology

In this second edition of the Global Fraud Index, we revisit fraud with fresh data to reveal how threats are evolving, and why businesses must adapt. The Index’s purpose is to dig deep into the causes behind the numbers. By doing so, we aim to equip you with insights that strengthen your everyday defences while ensuring fair access to financial services for those too often shut out.

Our Index provides a comprehensive analysis of each country’s susceptibility to fraud, using both internal and external data. Sumsub’s internal data is based on volumes of over 1 million checks conducted daily on our platform.

The Global Fraud Index is conducted by Sumsub, a full-cycle verification platform that secures the whole user journey. Since 2015, Sumsub has helped businesses meet compliance requirements, welcome more customers, reduce costs, and protect against fraud.

If you have any questions regarding this Index, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

The Global Fraud Index 2025 analyzes 112 countries to offer a complete overview of fraud risk and how prepared each country is to access the necessary KYC/AML services.

The Index consists of four pillars: fraud activity, resource accessibility, government intervention, and economic health. We have adapted a traditional hypothesis called ‘The Fraud Triangle’, identifying the rate of fraud to correlate with pressure, opportunity, and rationalization.

The indicators for each of our four pillars were chosen based on relevance, public availability, date of the data’s publication, and country coverage. Our methodology will be an "expert weighting scheme" where the weighting of our indicators and pillars is reviewed by internal Sumsub experts using their in-depth knowledge and expertise.

Data collection for the Global Fraud Index was completed on August 27th, 2025, and does not reflect developments after that date.

The majority of external sources were kept the same from our 2024 Global Fraud Index to ensure a fair test when comparing data. Only one source had to be changed due to data unavailability, and one source had not yet added 2025 data, so it was kept as 2024.

The data consists of 112 countries, with countries removed either following the FATF blacklist or due to incomplete data using our indicators. A select group of countries from Africa and Asia was added to this year’s index.

Certain countries, such as Afghanistan, have been excluded from the Index due to geopolitical instability, which makes it difficult to gather reliable and consistent data.

We assess fraudulent activity based on the target country, rather than the origin of the fraud, to better align with metrics of governmental intervention. This means countries like the United States, which see a high number of fraud attempts but have stronger regulatory frameworks, will rank lower on the list but still require significant attention.

The majority of our data is from 2025 and 2024, except that the Government Effectiveness Index uses data from 2023. This does not significantly impact the results, as these metrics typically evolve gradually over several years, showing minimal short-term fluctuations.