TransUnion: US auto loan first-party fraud losses jump 267% since 2018 to $323 million
TRU•Auto loan fraud losses rise sharply
TransUnion analysis flagged rising auto-lending fraud losses despite lower incident rates across several fraud types, signaling higher severity per case.
- First-party fraud losses climbed to USD 323 million in Q3 2025 from USD 88 million in Q3 2018, a 267% increase.
- Third-party fraud losses rose to USD 47 million from USD 18 million, even as incidence fell to less than half prior levels.
- Synthetic fraud losses increased to USD 208 million from USD 93 million over the same period.
Credit washing emerges as a key risk
Credit washing emerged as a key risk: about 5% of US consumers had charged-off accounts suppressed in 2025, erasing an estimated USD 10 billion.
