A TransUnion study shows the cost of committing fraud has dropped to nearly zero, and lenders don't know which way to turn
The same technology that has made mortgage origination faster and cheaper has done the same thing for the people trying to defraud it. New consumer data from TransUnion shows how widespread the problem has already become.
According to the TransUnion Q2 2026 Consumer Pulse Study, 47% of US consumers were targeted by some form of fraud in the last three months. Of those, 40% were targeted but did not become victims, and 7% did. Phishing was the most common scheme at 45%, followed by smishing at 39% and vishing at 35%.
The survey showed 28% of Americans said they were notified that details about their identities or online accounts were stolen in a data breach in the last three months.
Charlie Wise (pictured top), SVP and head of global research and consulting at TransUnion, said the numbers are not a reflection of greater consumer awareness. The volume of attacks is actually increasing.
"Definitely, we see that material increase," Wise told Mortgage Professional America. "It's making it both so much easier for fraudsters to literally spam consumers by the thousands, or maybe even millions, and also to hit businesses as well."
The cost of doing fraud
The attack types brokers and lenders are seeing have grown more sophisticated, even as they have become cheaper to execute, Wise said. Synthetic fraud, creating fabricated identities to defraud businesses, is increasingly common, and the barrier to entry has dropped to nearly nothing.
"We talk to customers all the time who are just seeing the levels of attacks that they get in so many different types, trying to take over accounts, trying to basically get into systems to take over consumers," he said. "Their ability to create really synthetic fraud, to create identities and be able to use this to basically defraud businesses as well as consumers is just enormous."
Voice mimicry has made the attacks more personal. Fraudsters can now impersonate a family member convincingly enough to extract credentials from an elderly consumer who has no reason to be suspicious.
"I don't even want to get into things like the ability to mimic a relative's voice and sound like it's your grandson and, you know, 'Give me your credentials, grandma,'" he said. "Anyway, that's the kind of stuff that we're seeing. Businesses report it, we see it in our numbers. And this is just heightening the need for lenders to be far, far more diligent."
Fraud targets who are oblivious
One of the more striking numbers in the TransUnion data is not the 47% who were targeted. It is the 53% who said they were unaware of any fraud schemes targeting them. The figure surprised Wise.
"I'm actually surprised to see the 53% that say they were unaware of any fraud schemes targeting them," he said. "Like, who are these lucky individuals? I get 10 today. So either you don't own a phone or you block everything. One of the two."
The gap between fraud volume and consumer awareness creates a specific problem for lenders. A borrower who does not know their identity has been compromised cannot flag it during the application process.
Cost is what has fundamentally changed the scale of the problem. Previously, fraud required meaningful resources, time, technical skill, and a target-by-target approach. Those constraints no longer apply.
"The resources that can go into creating and perpetrating fraud have just … AI has just made the cost of entry close to nothing," he said. "And people are just using this technology for bad and not for good, which is unfortunate."
According to the Q2 2026 Consumer Pulse Study, 48% of consumers cited unethical use of AI as a top potential long-term concern, and 33% cited increased identity fraud attempts. But awareness has not translated into protective action.
Among those who experienced a data breach in the last three months, only 28% placed a freeze on their credit. Just 26% signed up for credit monitoring. Most did not know what steps to take.
For lenders, Wise said, the sheer volume is what has become so difficult to manage.
"They sort of feel like, ‘Man, it's just like incoming fire. Which direction do I turn for safety?’" he said. "There is almost none."
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