Hong Kong businesses reported HK$92 billion (US$11.84 billion) in financial losses from digital fraud over the past year, despite the city’s overall digital fraud rate being lower than the global average, according to a new report by credit reference agency TransUnion.
Conducted from late May to early June, the survey gathered data from 1,200 respondents worldwide, including 200 in Hong Kong, all in managerial roles overseeing risk and business fraud. In Hong Kong, only companies with an annual revenue of at least HK$200 million were polled.
Globally, the survey – which also included businesses in Canada, India, the Philippines, the UK and the US – showed a rise in fraud losses to 7.7 per cent of annual revenue from 6.5 per cent a year earlier.
While only 2.7 per cent of all attempted digital transactions in Hong Kong were suspected to be digital fraud, compared with 3.8 per cent globally, businesses that fell victim to fraud reported losses equivalent to 7.1 per cent of annual revenue.
More than half of the Hong Kong respondents were “extremely” or “very” concerned about the business impact of fraud.
The main cause of reported fraudulent cases was third-party fraud, which involves using stolen identities to open accounts and accounted for 26 per cent of reported cases in the city.
