Tala reveals key insights in protecting Filipino consumers from financial fraud

Financial fraud has become one of the most pressing challenges facing Filipino consumers and businesses today. In a revealing conversation with Atty. Arianne Ferrer, External Affairs Director of Tala, a financial tech platform, shared insights into the scale of the problem and what's being done to combat it.

- By JONATHAN CASTILLO

At an industry event in July 2025 called Decoding the Sea, by the Consumer Lending Association Philippines, more than 95% of participating organizations expressed concern about rising fraud. Even more alarming, over two-thirds reported encountering fraud incidents in the previous 12 months.

"Financial fraud is definitely troubling and the reason why it troubles us is because it erodes consumer trust. It disrupts operations and causes financial losses not just for companies but for the consumers themselves," the executive explained.

Fraud is a major concern because it disrupts operations and causes financial losses, not only for companies, but for consumers as well. Atty. Ferrer has emphasized that this is why Tala, along with industry partners and regulators, work together to address the problem.

Atty. Ferrer has mentioned third-party reports ranking the Philippines as the second most affected country globally for financial fraud, though industry leaders hope that collaborative efforts will push the nation out of the top 10 in coming years.

She shared that they conducted a study that revealed the elderly and people over 55 often fall victim to scams. However, it also found that the youth, people ages 18 to 25, are equally susceptible to fraudsters' scams.

There are no official reports on how or why the youth get scammed. For older people, it's often due to loneliness, the infamous "love scam."

"At the heart of it, these fraudsters are experts of social engineering," Atty. Ferrer explained. "They study the human mind, so they target very normal conditions and circumstances."

"Trying to find that moment of vulnerability, desperation, that's when they come in and trick people, regardless of their age, their education background, their employment background, so I think as a whole because fraud especially financial fraud is developing so quickly in such a sophisticated manner, everyone has to be careful," she added.