Global gross card fraud is projected to reach US$35.67 billion by 2023, which means that you’re probably more vulnerable to card fraud than you think.
Some of us may feel that card fraud will never happen to us – I’m definitely guilty of this complacency. Unfortunately, it looks like the odds are not exactly in everyone’s favour.
Card Fraud Series:
• #1 How Does Credit & Debit Card Fraud Happen?
• #2 Card Fraud on the Rise: Crunching the Numbers
• #3 How to Avoid Credit Card Scams and Frauds Overseas
Total Scam Cases
| Cases in 2018 (Q1 & Q2) | Cases in 2019 (Q1 & Q2) | |
| E-commerce | 1,013 (S$870,000) | 1,345 (S$1.2 million) |
| Loan | 315 (S$670,00) | 692 (S$2.2 Million) |
| Credit-for-sex | 209 (S$464,000) | 456 (S$1.1 million) |
| Internet love | 288 (S$11.7 million) | 306 (S$17.1 million) |
Source: The Straits Times
Top Digital Platforms for E-commerce Scams
| Cases in 2018 (Q1 & Q2) | Cases in 2019 (Q1 & Q2) | |
| Carousell | 751 | 765 |
| 58 | 270 | |
| 8 | 77 | |
| Shopee | 27 | 75 |
| Lazada | 14 | 63 |
| Total | 858 | 1,250 |
Source: The Straits Times
In the first half of 2019 alone, Singaporeans lost more than S$19 million to digital scams.
Credit-for-sex scams and loan scams within Singapore saw a jump of more than 100% between 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile e-commerce scams conducted on platforms like Carousell and Instagram made up 86% of all e-commerce scams reported.
From 2018 to 2019, there was a 55% increase in reported scams.
Within Singapore alone, there were two notable cases of card fraud and card information being compromised. Users of tech giant Apple brought up concerns of unauthorised iTunes transactions that amounted to thousands of dollars.
In the case of the second, six people were arrested for defrauding a ride-hailing company. One of the perpetrators was believed to have gotten over S$9,000 from other customers of the ride-hailing app, though they did not disclose how he did so.
Global Rise of Fraud
Worldwide, total gross fraud losses stand at US$27.85 billion in 2018, marking an increase of 16.2% from US$23.97 billion in 2017. These issues affected almost everyone – card issuers, merchants, card owners, just to name a few.
Global card brands (such as Visa, Mastercard, and Amex) account for 89.26% of gross fraud losses worldwide for all cards in 2018, an increase from 88.75% to the prior year.
In addition, fraudulent credit and debit card transactions at ATMs outside the global general purpose cards (such as Cirrus and Maestro) amounted to US$1.58 billion. This is a 6.5% increase compared to 2017, and accounts for 5.69% of global card fraud losses.
Card Not Present (CNP) Fraud Continues to Increase
CNP transactions refer to transactions where the physical card isn’t present during the time of transaction. Online transactions and any other remote purchase are examples of CNP transactions.
According to US News, CNP transactions have increased from US$3.4 billion to US$4.57 billion from 2015 to 2016.
While EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) technology has led to an 80% decrease in card present fraud, CNP fraud is still 81% more likely to occur. Retailers are predicted to lose US$71 billion to CNP fraud by 2023.
Given all of this, it begs the question…
What’s YouTrip Doing About It?
YouTrip employs a practice known as fraud and transaction monitoring. Simply put, this service helps to track transactions and identify any transactions that seem out of the norm.
When an unusual transaction is detected, you may be contacted by our friendly YouTrooper staff to ensure that the transaction was not unauthorised. In some highly suspicious cases, we may need to temporarily freeze your account to keep it secure.
In addition to our fraud and transaction monitoring, there are a few more steps we’ve taken to secure your YouTrip account.
- Email alerts for ATM withdrawals and CNP transactions: We’ll send you a daily consolidated statement through email if you’ve made ATM withdrawals and/or CNP transactions
- Lock card function: You may lock your card through your YouTrip app when you’re not using it
- One-time Password (OTP): You’ll receive a mandatory OTP when you add a new credit/debit card to your YouTrip account
- OTP login for extended inactivity: Our system will log you out if no activity is detected for a certain period of time and you’ll need to login again with an OTP
- Password Secure: You’ll be prompted to login using your passcode of fingerprint each time you access the YouTrip app.
If you notice anything unusual on your YouTrip account, drop us an email at fraud-reporting@you.co or call us at our 24/7 hotline (+65 6904 9334) and we’ll be here to sort things out for you.
Read: Best Travel Insurance Singapore 2020 | Comparison Guide
Read: Debit Card Overseas Transaction Fees: Comparison Guide
Read: How to Avoid Credit Card Scams and Frauds Overseas
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Read: Travel Insurance Coverages & What to Look Out For
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