Online fraudsters in Hong Kong are re-focusing their efforts from logistics to the communities (online dating, forums, etc.) and gaming industries, according to TransUnion’s newest quarterly analysis.
Across industries, the rate of suspected digital fraud attempts rose 16.5% globally when comparing Q2 2021 (1 April – 30 June 2021) to Q2 2020 (1 April – 30 June 2020). For transactions coming from Hong Kong, the percentage of suspected digital fraud attempts increased at a much higher rate of 62.4% during the same time.
Communities and gaming were the industries with the largest suspected digital fraud attempt rate increase for transactions originating from Hong Kong, rising 333.3% and 205.6% from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021, respectively.
An example of the sudden shift in focus of fraudsters can be seen in logistics. The online fraud attempt rate for transactions coming from Hong Kong had risen 199.4% when comparing the periods of March 2019 to March 2020 and March 2020 to March 2021. When comparing Q2 2021 and Q2 2020, the rate of suspected online logistic fraud attempts coming from Hong Kong had still risen, but at a much lower rate of 3.5%.
As online fraud attempts against businesses continue to escalate, more than one-third of consumers stated that they have been targeted by a digital fraud scheme related to COVID-19 during the second quarter of 2021. TransUnion’s Consumer Pulse study in June 2021 found that approximately 37% of Hong Kong survey respondents said they were targeted by fraudsters in COVID-19 related digital schemes.
Phishing continued to be the most common type of COVID-19 related digital fraud impacting Hong Kong consumers in Q2 2021. Among Hong Kong consumers who say they were targeted with COVID-19-related digital fraud, 34% state they have been targeted by or fallen victim to such fraud. Stolen credit card or fraudulent charges was the second most cited type of COVID-19 related online fraud among those targeted, affecting Hong Kong consumers at 22%. Additionally, the younger generations appear to be in the crosshairs of fraudsters the most, with 40% of Gen Z saying they’d been targeted with digital fraud related to COVID-19.
The conclusions are 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.
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