Photo from THEPHILBIZNEWS/MAS
As the pandemic forced the world into a digital transformation, this left a window for digital fraudsters to hit vulnerable points of society. While some silver linings can be seen in the decline of suspected digital fraud attempts from the Philippines, digital fraud attempts should not be taken lightly.
The suspected digital fraud rate originating from the Philippines decreased in Q1 2022, declining -16.4% from the same quarter last year. This is consistent with the global digital fraud rate that decreased -22.6% in Q1 2022 from Q1 2021. TransUnion’s (NYSE:TRU) quarterly digital fraud analysis observed that in the Philippines, the suspected fraud rate in Q1 2022 declined year-over-year (YoY) in industries such as gaming, financial services, and retail at -27.6%, -24.5%, and -23.2%, respectively.
Certain business sectors, however, were more prone to digital fraud attempts originating from the Philippines, with the logistics industry exhibiting the greatest YoY growth among all sectors in Q1 2022 (104.5%). This growth possibly reflects fraudsters trying to take advantage of the continued challenges within that industry as retailers struggle to ship goods in a timely manner. The logistics industry was mostly impacted by shipping fraud – which is when a buyer spoofs a shipping address or when a seller receives payment for goods or services, but never ships to the buyer. The gambling industry saw the second largest increase in the rate of suspected digital fraud from the Philippines in Q1 2022, growing 67.2% YoY.
Suspected Digital Fraud Attempts Shift to New Industries
– Fraud Rate Change from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022
| Industry | The Philippines | Across the Globe |
| Logistics | +104.5% | +42.7% |
| Gambling | +67.2% | +50.1% |
| Travel and Leisure | +17.0% | +13.3% |
| Communities (online dating, forums, etc.) | +4.6% | -6.1% |
| Telecommunications | +0.9% | -20.4% |
| Insurance | N/A | +134.5% |
| Retail | -23.2% | -7.6% |
| Financial Services | -24.5% | -63.6% |
| Gaming | -27.6% | +6.9% |
Contrary to the TransUnion data, consumers say they are being targeted more by digital fraudsters, according to the recent TransUnion Consumer Pulse Survey. Of the 1,078 Filipino adults surveyed Feb. 8-23, 2022, 53% said they had been targeted by digital fraud in the last three months compared to 50% the previous quarter. Of those consumers that said they had been targeted, they claimed phishing scams were most common (42%) followed by money/gift card scams (38%) and third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail sites (30%).
“While fraud attempts have, in some cases, been deterred by controls that businesses have put in place, fraudsters will not rest and instead, are searching 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,” said Pia Arellano, CEO and president at TransUnion Philippines.
TransUnion came to its conclusions about fraud against businesses based on intelligence from billions of transactions and more than 40,000 websites and apps contained in its flagship identity proofing, risk-based authentication and fraud analytics solution suite – TransUnion TruValidate™. The percent or rate of suspected digital fraud attempts are those that TruValidate customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators compared to all transactions that were assessed for fraud.
