More than 70% Filipinos hit by fraud attempts in 2025
MORE than 70% of Filipinos were targeted for fraud last year, driven mainly by phishing amid the extensive use of mobile channels for commerce and social interaction, a survey by TransUnion showed.
“Our data indicate that fraud in the Philippines is driven more by scale than severity,” Yogesh Daware, TransUnion Philippines chief commercial officer said in a press release. “While a significant proportion of Filipino consumers report being targeted through online, e-mail, phone call or text messaging fraud attempts, the typical financial loss per incident is relatively lower compared to other markets.”
The survey found 72% of the 821 Filipinos surveyed reported being targeted for fraud last year, with 11% falling victim, both higher than the global average of 53% that were targeted and 10% that fell victim.
The survey was conducted from Nov. 20 to Dec. 8, 2025 as part of the global survey of 12,730 consumers.
This places the Philippines among the markets with the most widespread digital fraud exposure across 18 countries and regions surveyed by TransUnion.
The country’s suspected digital fraud rate stood at 4.1% in 2025, exceeding the global level of 3.8% for the sixth consecutive year.
Among those who fell victim, the survey found Filipinos lost a median $850 (P50,028) to fraud last year, mainly due to money mule activity and third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail websites.
Fraud attempts were driven by the country’s high internet penetration and mobile-first connectivity, with 91% of Filipinos reported conducting at least part of their account management activities online — such as address changes, account name updates and other modifications.
Fraud risk was highest at the account login stage at 6.1%, higher than the global rate of 4.3%. This was followed by account creation (4.5%) and financial transactions (1.1%).
“Fraudsters rely on impersonation and synthetic identities to evade detection, while AI (artificial intelligence)-powered tactics make these attacks easier to scale and harder to identify,” Mr. Daware said, noting that fraud is fundamentally an identity issue in the Philippines.
“This raises critical questions for both businesses and consumers: whether organizations can reliably verify the person on the other side of a digital interaction and whether consumers can effectively protect their personal information.”
The logistics sector recorded the highest suspected digital fraud rate in 2025 for attempted transactions at 8.5%, followed by the insurance sector at 7.6%, the communities sector at 5.8%, retail sector at 5.2%, and the financial services sector rounding out the top five at 2.3%. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
