Asia-Pacific banks see scams, mule accounts as top threats

SCAMS and money mule accounts are the top fraud concern of bank executives in the Asia-Pacific, according to a survey by global analytics software firm FICO.

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Seven in 10 or 69% of senior officials of financial institutions in the region said scams and mule accounts have become the “dominant threat” for the industry, according to a FICO poll, which it conducted during its Asia Pacific Fraud Forum in June and had more than 40 fraud and risk executives as respondents.

This reflects the continued rise in these forms of fraudulent activities where victims are tricked into sending money to criminals, it said.

“Unlike traditional fraud, which typically involves unauthorized transactions that banks can detect and block, scams often bypass existing defenses because payments are authorized by the victim. Once the money is sent, criminals rely on mule accounts to quickly move funds across institutions and borders, making recovery extremely difficult,” FICO said.

This comes as scam-related losses reported by the financial sector reached “historic highs” last year, it noted, with Malaysia recording $12.78 billion in losses. Thailand also saw $1.7 billion in damages and Singapore reported $860 million in losses, up 70% year on year.

“Similar trends were reported in the Philippines and Indonesia, where scam-related activity now dominates cybercrime reports,” FICO said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) earlier said that its supervised financial institutions saw P5.82 billion in losses from cyberattacks in 2024, up 2.6% from P5.67 billion the previous year.