Financial and gaming digital fraud on the rise in Namibia
The rate of suspected digital fraud attempts from Namibia in the second quarter of 2022 increased by 36% compared to the same period last year, in contrast to a -14% decline shown globally.
This is according to TransUnion’s quarterly fraud analysis, which shows that the rate of suspected digital fraud attempts originating from Namibia decreased across several sectors, but showed significant year-on-year increases in the financial services and gambling sectors.
TransUnion’s data on fraud against businesses is 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 TruValidat.
The local insurance industry that saw the biggest increase in the rate of suspected digital fraud attempts was financial services, which saw a massive increase of 229%. The other industry to see a big increase in the rate of suspected digital fraud coming from Namibia was gambling, which increased by 179%.
The global insurance industry saw a suspected digital fraud attempt rate increase of 159% in the quarter under review, while the global logistics sector increased by 13%.
“In recent years, we’ve seen fraudsters shift their industry focus each quarter. At this time, we believe the insurance industry is seeing more ‘soft fraud’ because some consumers may be representing their policies incorrectly in an effort to save money, especially in a high inflation environment that places more pressure on their wallets,” said Shai Cohen, senior vice president of global fraud solutions at TransUnion.
TransUnion observed the largest declines from Namibia-based transactions in travel and leisure (-39%), retail (-9%), and communities, which includes online forums and dating sites, at -9%.
Globally, industries seeing the largest declines in the rate of suspected digital fraudulent activity from Q2 2021 to Q2 2022 included gaming (-63%), travel and leisure (-28%), and retail (-28%).
