The rate of suspected digital fraud attempts originating from the Philippines decreased by 11 percent in the second quarter this year versus the first quarter, according to the TransUnion quarterly fraud analysis.
According to the report, the largest declines from Philippine-based transactions were seen in gaming at 53 percent and financial services at 16 percent. Communities, such as online dating sites and forum also declined by 14 percent, and travel and leisure by three percent.
The drop in the rate of suspected digital fraud in the country was consistent with the decline in global digital fraud observed within the same timeframe.
Despite the overall decrease in suspected digital fraud coming from the Philippines across different industries, the report said that suspected fraudsters have honed in on specific sectors.
According to TransUnion, the logistics industry had the biggest year-on-year growth in suspected digital fraud attempts coming from the Philippines among all sectors at 236 percent.
Based on data from April 1 to June 30, 2022, shipping fraud was the top logistics-focused form of digital fraud across the world. Common examples of this type of fraud include instances where buyers fabricate shipping addresses, or when sellers receive payment for goods or services, but never ship to buyers.
The telecommunications industry posted the second largest year-on-year increase in the rate of suspected digital fraud coming from the Philippines at 45 percent, while gambling placed third with a 32 percent uptick.
Digital fraud continues to be a constant in the lives of many Filipino consumers. TransUnion’s latest Consumer Pulse Study that 45 percent of Filipino adults questioned May 26 to June 7, 2022 reported being targeted by online fraud schemes but did not become a victim in the last three months. However, 11 percent said they ended up as victims of activities such as phishing, money scams, or third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail sites in the last three months.
“With more Filipinos choosing to transact online, fraudsters will continue to capitalize on any opportunities to exploit both consumers and businesses,” said Pia Arellano, President and CEO of TransUnion Philippines.
“As the Philippines continues its rapid acceleration into a digital economy, organizations must take decisive steps to stay ahead of any present and emerging form of fraudulent activity. By instituting strong fraud and authentication practices, and streamlining processes to reduce manual reviews and customer interrogations, organizations can reduce costs and increase revenue while building greater trust with the Filipino public,” she added.
The TransUnion report is 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.