On September 10, at the Digital Trust Summit held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the Global Mobile Association (GSMA) announced the ASEAN Consumer Fraud Report 2026.
Data shows that 45% of fraud cases reported in the last 12 months in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are still unresolved.
The survey recorded that about 8% of consumers in the region were victims of scams in the past 12 months. Among the victims, 68% suffered financial losses, 82% could not recover their money and only 10% of victims recovered all their lost assets.
Explaining the reasons for the backlog of many cases that have not been resolved, the report points out that current fraud cases tend to be complex and multi-channel. This practice leads to fragmentation and lack of inter-agency mechanisms in the process of agencies resolving dossiers.
At the same time, with the trick of psychologically manipulating victims to voluntarily transfer money in investment traps, counterfeiting, fraudsters have exploited loopholes in the mechanism of operating banking transactions. Once the cash flow leaves the bank account, the reversal of transactions only applies to card fraud, no longer feasible for voluntary transactions.
Notably, according to a GSMA report, messaging applications have become the most popular access tool for cybercriminals, accounting for 41% of recorded cases.
The situation of prolonged backlogs is seriously eroding user confidence in communication channels, digital services and data sharing.
The report also pointed out that 96% of consumers are concerned about the risk of being scammed or cyberattacked, while nearly 90% recognize at least one fraud trick with artificial intelligence applications. As a result, people who have been victims of fraud tend to have to change accounts or change telecommunications service providers twice as often as normal.
