IDology, a provider of solutions for identity verification, authentication and fraud prevention, has released its Sixth Annual Fraud Report, confirming the growing importance of balancing customer friction and fraud prevention.

The report reveals a surge in mobile and phishing fraud schemes, a focus on artificial intelligence and the rise of machine learning as developing categories in identity verification, Additionally, the report highlights the strategic role of identity verification in the quest to retain and attract customers and increase revenue.

According to the study, mobile fraud increased 117 percent over the previous year, with businesses reporting a 63 percent increase in mobile fraud. All types — including porting, spoofing, hacking and fraudulent change events — are on the rise, according to the study. Caller ID spoofing, porting and SMS interception increased 74 percent, 69 percent and 50 percent, respectively, year over year.

The prevalence of phishing, which can be linked to 93 percent of last year's security breaches, increased in prevalence by 66 percent.

These developments have been accompanied by a greater focus among businesses on fraud detection and prevention, according to the study. For instance, 85 percent of businesses now consider identity verification a strategic differentiator.

However, 75 percent of respondents believe that ID verification has become more complicated in the last three years, as they seek out more robust and comprehensive multi-layered identity verification solutions.

However, this is not necessarily the case, according to IDology CEO John Dancu, who said, "The prevailing mindset that in order to keep fraud out, the customer verification process has to be made more difficult, is quickly becoming outdated," he said.

"Winning businesses will be the ones that take a strategic approach to identity verification with the realization that they can offer frictionless customer convenience and effective fraud deterrence to ultimately cultivate customer trust."

Download the Sixth Annual Fraud Report and accompanying infographic.