From Data to Decision: Detecting Fraud Risk Earlier

Fraud risk often begins before an account is opened, a login is attempted, a profile is changed, or a transaction is initiated. Fraudsters gather and reuse identity and account data early and at scale. For organizations that rely on isolated data, the risk may not become visible until later (after alerts, transactions, or disputes), allowing new-account fraud, account takeover, scams, and first-party fraud to continue longer. Earlier, more complete data and signals—including those from identity, document, biometrics and liveness, device, behavior, accounts and payments, cross-network intelligence, and customer response—can help organizations detect risk earlier, reduce losses, limit unnecessary friction, and maintain customer trust.

Foreword

This report, sponsored by Plaid, explores why fraud risk often develops before organizations have enough information to detect it. As fraudsters gather, reuse, and scale identity and account data earlier in the customer lifecycle, many detection processes still rely on signals that appear later, after alerts, transactions, or disputes. This report examines how earlier, more connected data and signals from identity, document, biometrics and liveness, device, behavior, accounts and payments, cross-network intelligence, and customer response can help organizations improve detection, support better risk decisions, reduce losses, and strengthen customer trust. 

This report was adapted from the 2026 Identity Fraud Study: The Illusion of Progress, published by Javelin Strategy & Research in April 2026. Javelin Strategy & Research maintains complete independence in its data collection, findings, and analysis.