Suspected digital fraud attempts down 16.4% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — Suspected digital fraud attempts originating from the Philippines declined 16.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, but certain sectors like logistics remained more vulnerable to such attempts, global information and insights company TransUnion said.

TransUnion said its quarterly digital fraud analysis showed the drop in suspected digital fraud rate in the Philippines was consistent with the 22.6 percent decrease in global digital fraud rate in the first quarter.

While the suspected digital fraud attempts from the Philippines dipped in the first quarter, TransUnion said certain business sectors were more prone to such schemes.

Among these is the logistics industry which had the biggest year-on-year growth in suspected digital fraud attempts among all sectors in the first quarter at 104.5 percent.

TransUnion said the growth may be due to fraudsters trying to take advantage of the continued challenges within the logistics industry, with retailers facing difficulty and delays in shipment of goods.

The logistics industry was mostly impacted by shipping fraud or when a buyer spoofs a shipping address or when a seller receives payment for goods or services, but never ships to the buyer.

Posting the second largest year-on-year increase in the rate of suspected digital fraud from the Philippines in the first quarter was the gambling industry at 67.2 percent.

Travel and leisure placed third with a 17 percent year-on-year uptick in suspected digital fraud from the Philippines in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, industries where suspected fraud originating from the Philippines declined year-on-year in the first quarter were gaming (-27.6 percent), financial services (-24.5 percent) and retail (-23.2 percent).

Even as suspected digital fraud from the Philippines was down in the first quarter, TransUnion’s Consumer Pulse Survey conducted from Feb. 8 to 23 of this year covering 1,078 Filipino adults showed 53 percent were targeted by digital fraud in the last three months, compared to 50 percent in the previous quarter.

Of the different digital fraud schemes, phishing scam was the most common (42 percent), followed by money or gift card scams (38 percent) and third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail sites (30 percent).

While fraud attempts have in some cases been deterred by controls that businesses have put in place, TransUnion Philippines president and CEO Pia Arellano said fraudsters are expected to continue to search for new vulnerabilities.

“With more and more Filipinos choosing to transact online even as our economy and society normalize, fraudsters will continue to try to take advantage of any opportunities on the consumer and business fronts. Organizations must take decisive steps and institute measures to stay ahead of any fraud attempts that may arise in the future and build greater trust with the Filipino public,” she said.