GSMA: Nearly 1 in 10 ASEAN consumers were scammed in the past year

Scams have become an unfortunate fact of digital life in Malaysia and across the region, and a fresh set of findings shows just how deep the problem runs, and how rarely victims come out of it whole. The numbers come from two new GSMA reports launched this week at the M360 ASEAN Digital Trust Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The GSMA ASEAN Consumer Scam Report 2026, looked at Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and found that nearly half (45%) of reported scam cases across the six countries remain unresolved, even as consumers do more to protect themselves. Perhaps the more sobering part is what happens to the people who get caught.

The report found that around 8%, or nearly one in ten of those surveyed, said they’d been scammed in the past 12 months. Of the victims who lost money, a staggering 82% got none of it back, and only 10% recovered all of their losses. It’s little wonder, then, that people who’ve been scammed are more than twice as likely to switch accounts or service providers as those who haven’t.

That erosion of confidence is really the thread tying it all together. According to the GSMA, consumers stuck with unresolved cases report lower trust in communication channels, digital platforms and data sharing, and many have quietly changed how they deal with digital services and unfamiliar messages altogether.

“Access alone is no longer enough. As ASEAN’s digital economies become more sophisticated, people must have confidence that digital services are secure, reliable and accountable.

The findings from these reports show that digital trust is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for digital participation, innovation and growth.

This will require governments, mobile operators, digital platforms, financial institutions and other stakeholders to work together to verify identities, authenticate communications and prevent fraud before harm occurs.” – Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific, GSMA

It’s also getting harder to spot a scam in the first place. The report points to AI as a growing culprit, with the technology now powering more convincing phishing attempts, deepfakes, voice cloning and outright impersonation. Worryingly, nearly nine in ten consumers said they’d already recognised at least one form of AI being used in a scam, and a full 96% admitted to worrying about being scammed or hacked at all.

As for where all this is happening, messaging apps have become the number one hunting ground, accounting for 41% of scam experiences. The nature of the scams is shifting too, moving towards investment, cryptocurrency, online shopping and job scams, the kinds where victims are talked into sending money themselves rather than having it stolen outright.

The broader takeaway is that no single party can fix this alone, and the GSMA is pushing for governments, operators, banks and platforms to coordinate across borders.

Source

Read more of our articles below!

The post GSMA: Nearly 1 in 10 ASEAN consumers were scammed in the past year appeared first on Price Shop Malaysia.