As consumers and businesses continue to engage in commerce, fraudsters are increasingly using digital transactions for their own benefit, a new report said.
A new TransUnion analysis also said that suspected global digital fraud is up in the first half of 2023, and while retail and video gaming were among the most targeted industries during that timeframe, digital fraud affected all businesses.
In the first half of 2023, the retail and video gaming industries saw the highest rates of suspected digital fraud globally at 10.6% and 7.0%, respectively, followed by telecommunications at 5.3%.
Globally, insurance and logistics were the industries with the lowest suspected digital fraud attempt rate in the first half of 2023. Among all industries, the suspected digital fraud rate stood at 5.3%, up from 4.5% one year ago.
When the consumer is located in the Philippines during the transaction, among all industries, the suspected digital fraud rate stood at 8.2% in the first half of 2023. For transactions coming from the Philippines, the video gaming industry had the highest suspected digital fraud attempt rate among all industries in the first half of 2023 at 15.2%.
Conversely, the number of digital transactions coming from the Philippines in that industry decreased when comparing H1 2022 to H1 2023 (down 19.4% YoY). While the insurance industry saw the largest increase in digital transactions coming from the Philippines YoY at 160.3%, the suspected digital fraud rate for that industry for transactions coming from the Philippines was 7.1%.
“If left unchecked, fraud results in an erosion of trust between consumers and industries. When attempting to measure the impact of digital fraud on any one particular industry or another, it’s not enough to look at fraud rates alone,” Yogesh Daware, chief commercial officer at TransUnion Philippines, said.
“There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration. These include the overall size of the industry in question, whether the industry is growing and if so, how quickly. Only then can one endeavor to develop a more comprehensive perspective on how digital fraud is impacting these industries. In addition, this can help project where fraudsters may be focusing their efforts moving forward, and help industries take the necessary steps to stay ahead of any developing threats.”
This new TransUnion analysis comes on the heels of its recent Q3 Philippines Consumer Pulse Study which explored, among other things, consumer awareness of being targeted by any online, email, phone call or text messaging fraud attempt in the last three months. The TransUnion survey of 1,000 Filipino adults was conducted from July 6 to 24, 2023.
The survey found that 62% of survey respondents indicated that they had been targeted by fraud but did not become a victim of it, and 9% had been targeted and fell victim. Among those targeted, the most frequent fraud schemes by which they reported being attacked were phishing (51%), followed by smishing (45%) and money/gift card scam (34%)
