THERE’S a specter haunting consumers in the Asia Pacific region: fraud risks. These risks are on the rise and most of them are due to credit cards as such are the most common payment method in the region, a report by a data and analytics firm said.
The recent “True Cost of Fraud-Asia Pacific” study by LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc. revealed that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online and mobile channel transactions that, compared to in-person transactions, are exposed to greater fraud risks.
“Credit cards represent the largest payment method and source of fraud losses across much of the region, but digital/mobile wallets and debit cards also factored in highly,” the report read.
The report also noted that identity verification is the topmost concern when it comes to potential fraud in online channels.
The challenges that make identity verification tricky include the rise of synthetic identities; greater shift to digital payment methods; more botnet attacks; inability to confirm origination location; and limited access to real-time risk assessment data and tools, among others, according to the report.
With fraud risks on the rise, the study pointed out the need for companies to implement multi-layered solutions to safeguard their consumers.
This digital fraud defense, it explained, must also come along with a single authentication decision platform that includes near real-time event data, third-party signals and cross-channel intelligence.
The report said bot attacks could be lessened with the use of behavioral biometrics, such as keystroke dynamics and voice ID. A bot attack is the use of automated web requests to manipulate, defraud or disrupt a website, application, API (application programming interface) or end-users, according to a website owned by Fastly Inc.
“This fraud defense strategy analyzes the way a user interacts with a device and reliably differentiates between user profiles,” the report read.
“As fraud becomes more complex, various risks can occur at the same time with no single solution,” the LexisNexis study read. “Fraud tools need to authenticate both digital and physical criteria, as well as identity and transaction risk.”
The Alpharetta, Georgia, USA-headquartered firm’s January to June 2021 cybercrime report included the Philippines in the top 10 countries in the world where digital threats originate.
“The growth in attack volume from the Philippines was largely driven by a credit card testing attack targeting a payment gateway in March,” the data and analytics firm said.
LexisNexis’s report noted that human-initiated attacks across the globe declined by 9 percent to 236 million during the period. Most of these targeted mobile users at 54 percent, the remaining was for computer users.
Meanwhile, automated bot attacks surged by 41 percent to 1.2 billion. More than half of these were aimed at financial services.
“High velocity automated attacks that typically mass-test stolen identity credentials on a particular use case, originating from a machine or series of machines, have grown across financial services and media organizations,” the report read.