GBG report reveals APAC businesses advocate collaboration to fight fraud

New research from GBG's Global Fraud Report 2024 has revealed that 81% of businesses in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region believe cross-sector collaboration and intelligence sharing are crucial in combating the increasing prevalence of fraudulent criminal activity.

The report incorporated responses from businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, spanning financial services, fintech, cryptocurrency, banking, retail, and gaming sectors.

Most APAC businesses are already engaged in such collaborative efforts. According to the report, 80% of businesses in the region are part of an identity intelligence consortium. These consortia facilitate the sharing of transaction data and international consumer intelligence among businesses across various sectors and national borders. For those not yet part of such consortia, a significant majority, 91%, believe they should join.

However, there remain obstacles to more widespread collaboration. More than three-quarters (83%) of the surveyed businesses believe that the desire to maintain a competitive advantage hinders organisations from participating in collaborative efforts to tackle fraud. Additionally, 79% feel that global governments are not doing enough to support cross-sector collaboration. This is highlighted by the fact that 76% of APAC businesses find it extremely difficult to identify fraudsters during the onboarding process.

Carol Chris, General Manager for APAC at GBG, stated, "Sharing consumer intelligence to combat fraud does not mean a business will lose its competitive advantage. This is a myth that needs to be busted and fast. Businesses do not share raw data within consortia, but anonymised patterns and insights on confirmed or suspicious fraud. This has a huge benefit for all businesses regardless of sector. After all, criminals don't limit fraud attacks to one business, industry, or stop at national boundaries either."

In Australia, nearly a quarter (24%) of businesses surveyed think the government is not doing enough to help organisations fight fraud. Additionally, more than half (59%) believe that the government should establish clear standards on fraud prevention. Over half (52%) of the respondents want the government to support organisations in combating data breaches, highlighting the fact that 98.9% of Australian businesses experienced a data breach in the last 12 months.

The report also highlighted the rising levels of fraud in Australia. Sixty-nine percent of the businesses surveyed admitted they had experienced known or suspected fraud in the past year, and 71% noted that fraud attempts had increased compared to the previous year. Additionally, 78% reported a significant increase in the sophistication of these fraud attempts. However, 69% believe that opportunistic and convenient fraud poses a more significant threat to their businesses compared to sophisticated fraud, which concerns 31%.

The issue is causing significant stress among professionals working in risk and fraud prevention. All the Australian professionals surveyed reported losing sleep over the risk fraud poses to their organisations. The main concerns for these professionals include insufficient resources (46%), the evolving tactics of fraudsters (44%), organisational silos between compliance, fraud, and identity teams (44%), and the verification of identity (42%).

Carol Chris concluded, "Shared consumer intelligence is a powerful trust-building tool that creates a safer environment and online experiences for both businesses and consumers. It is heartening to see businesses are embracing this as it keeps them, and their users protected from fraud and financial loss. It would also help the high numbers of industry professionals reporting burnout as a result of high levels of fraud. Those businesses who are not collaborating now should do so swiftly or risk losing out."