[Tech Thoughts] Better discernment needed as Filipinos among most targeted by digital fraud

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Whether or not the Philippines is the worst-affected country for fraud, an issue persists: there is a constant chase to raise awareness and stay updated against scams and fraud attacks

Recently, global risk information provider and credit reporting agency TransUnion released an update to its State of Omnichannel Fraud Report which, while not exactly exhaustive and definitive in terms of coverage of countries dealing with digital fraud, paints a not-so-wonderful picture of the state of fraudulent activity in the country.

Basically, it surveyed consumers across 18 countries and regions between November and December 2024, with the Philippines being one of the locations it surveyed.

The apparent greatest digital fraud threat? Phishing, or the act of tricking a recipient into giving up sensitive data by pretending to be an official or otherwise legitimate source, like a bank or website.

The information pointed to over 7 out of 10 Filipinos (74%) getting targeted by some form of digital fraud scheme — this includes email, online, phone call, or text messaging fraud schemes — in the last three months. The average among the markets surveyed was 53%.

Additionally, more than a third (34%) Filipinos reported losing money due any of the tactics mentioned earlier from November 2023 to December 2024. This is higher than the 29% global rate.

Yogesh Daware, chief commercial officer at TransUnion Philippines, said in a statement that, “The average reported fraud loss among Filipinos last year according to our study was $768, exceeding P44,700 in local currency. While these figures are lower than the median of $1,747 (approximately P101,700) across global markets which TransUnion surveyed, the impact of falling victim to fraud remains significant.”

This is because of our low average monthly wage, which TransUnion estimates to be somewhere in the “over two months worth of salary” range for most Philippine households.

The constant chase

Whether or not the Philippines is the worst-affected country for fraud, the issue persists in that there is a constant chase to raise awareness and stay updated against scams and fraud attacks, especially in a social-media-savvy (yet not-very-aware) country like the Philippines.

“The number of social media users in the Philippines amounts to 78% of the country’s population. The high volume of users interacting online opens doors for fraudsters to take advantage of unsuspecting victims,” Daware noted.

Daware added that despite decreases in digital transactions in communities globally and from the Philippines last year, “our analysis showed a growth in the number of transactions suspected to be digital fraud. This tells us that fraudsters are ramping up their attacks by targeting more victims and diversifying their tactics.”

The constant chase means making sure people are aware of current tactics, and the emergence of newer tricks, such as using deepfakes or AI voices to sound authoritative or legitimate in phishing attempts, or trying other methods to commit fraud such as love scams.

Online savvy, but lacking digital discernment?

One issue we might have is that while we now have wider access to information (or at least to the internet) there may be a lack the discernment to determine what’s real or otherwise sketchy.

The Philippines has a problem with functional literacy, where around 18 million Filipinos finished high school despite being functionally illiterate. While they can read and write, there’s some hampering of their ability to understand concepts to allow them to function productively and with the right amount of comprehension skills in the now.

In a digital age, it’s going to be the students teaching the adults what’s trendy and current, and if students aren’t functionally able to spot digital fraud or an online scam, how can you expect less-digitally-savvy adults to make their way online safely?

Can something be done?

There are ways to mitigate this, however.

Governments in Southeast Asia are trying to crack down on digital fraud centers and other sorts of scam hubs, most notably in Myanmar.

The Philippines has set up an inter-agency response center in line with Scam Watch Pilipinas to report scams and, hopefully, to get information about what’s new in the world of fraudulent activity.

Rappler’s also previously discussed the matter of scams and fraud with experts, and it’d be great if you could tune into the below to learn more about common scams.

As always, forewarned is forearmed, but it depends on everyone to study up.

Till then, unless you want to live in a place with no cellphone service or spotty internet, perhaps get some kind of caller ID on your phones, and block errant callers you don’t know instead of asking them what they want, to start. – Rappler.com