Consumer Fears Spike as AI-Driven Mobile Fraud Threatens Holiday Shopping Season, New Appdome Data Shows

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As U.S. consumers head into the busiest mobile shopping window of the year, new data from Appdome's fifth annual Consumer Expectations of Mobile App Security Report shows that synthetic fraud, identity theft, and AI-driven scams are now the top reasons Americans abandon mobile apps during Black Friday and the holiday season. With AI-driven mobile fraud rising sharply, consumers are increasingly worried that holiday shopping apps cannot protect them.

Industry data from NordLayer, SEON, and Kaspersky shows fraud attempts rising anywhere from 22% to more than 4× during Cyber Week alone. Appdome's new consumer research reflects this heightened risk environment:

• 63.7% of Americans fear synthetic fraud most when shopping on mobile.
• 44.7% delete or abandon apps over identity theft concerns.
• 19% stop using apps due to fraudulent transactions.

With deep discounts, speed pressure, and high-volume mobile payments converging, consumers are entering a holiday season they believe is primed for fraud.

"AI is changing the fraud landscape faster than mobile businesses can react," said Tom Tovar, Co-Creator and CEO of Appdome. "Consumers want proof that their apps can stop fraud before a holiday purchase is made — not after the damage is done."

AI-Driven Mobile Fraud Is Creating a New Wave of Holiday Threats
In 2025, AI-driven scams — including deepfake payment approvals, vishing attacks, and bot-driven account takeovers — have become primary enablers of holiday-season mobile fraud.

Appdome's research found that:

• 51% of Americans see AI as a threat to the safety of using mobile apps.
• 89.4% expect apps to block AI-powered threats such as bots, deepfakes, impersonation, and account takeovers.
• Yet only 10.6% feel confident mobile apps can actually stop these threats — creating one of the largest global trust gaps.

This "AI paradox" puts enormous pressure on banking, retail, fintech, travel, and delivery apps to demonstrate visible in-app protection during peak holiday shopping.

Prevention, Not Reimbursement, Is the New Expectation
During Black Friday and year-end shopping, consumers overwhelmingly expect mobile apps to protect them proactively:

• 87.7% prioritize fraud prevention before it occurs, not reimbursement after.
• 65% say the mobile app maker — not the device, OS, or carrier — is responsible for stopping fraud.
• 60.9% say privacy is "very important," and nearly one in four refuse to use apps without clear privacy safeguards.

"Holiday shopping is when attackers strike hardest," said Jamie Bertasi, Chief Customer Officer at Appdome. "AI lets bad actors mimic real users, hijack sessions, and trigger fraudulent transactions. Stopping these attacks inside the app is essential to protecting customers — and revenue — during the busiest shopping seasons of the year."

Mobile Apps Must Act Before Spending Peaks
With record mobile spending expected between Black Friday and December 31, the findings show a clear mandate for app makers:

• High-velocity holiday transactions are ideal for synthetic identity fraud and account takeovers.
• Attackers are using AI to scale and automate mobile scams at unprecedented speed.
• Consumer trust can shift instantly to apps that demonstrate visible protection.

According to the survey, mobile users are significantly more likely to recommend, review, and promote brands that visibly protect them — especially during the holidays.

About the Report
To read the full report go to https://www.appdome.com/mobile-consumer-cyber-security-survey/

About Appdome
Appdome's mission is to protect every mobile business and user in the world from scams, fraud, bots, and attacks. Appdome's patented AI-Native XTM Platform is designed to protect every aspect of mobile business now and in the future. From mobile DevOps to mobile applications, networks, APIs, and Customer Identity, Appdome uses AI to generate Android & iOS defense plugins for 400+ mobile app security, anti-fraud, bot defense, anti-malware, geo compliance, social engineering, deepfake and Customer Identity defenses on demand. Appdome also uses AI inside its ThreatScope™ Mobile XTM, to continuously calculate a Mobile Risk Index™ for businesses and applications as well as rank and preempt attacks in real-time. In Appdome's Threat Resolution Center™, Agentic-AI provides customer support and care teams a quick and easy way to provide end-user threat resolution and remediation. Appdome's Threat-Events™ framework gathers threat and attack metadata, and can be used to inform the application, application SDKs and back-end network components when threats are present or to create customized threat responses inside Android & iOS apps. As a platform, Appdome functions as a continuous compliance center, tracking all builds, changes, teams, users, defense configurations, events, and more for quick and easy audit of the mobile defense lifecycle. Appdome holds several patents including U.S. Patents 9,934,017 B2, 10,310,870 B2, 10,606,582 B2, 11,243,748 B2 and 11,294,663 B2. Additional patents pending.

Correction: An earlier version of this release an incomplete hyperlink to the full report.

SOURCE Appdome