India 4th in online fraud, digital adoption still high
Out of the three sectors, Indian retail merchants experienced high fraud rates of as much as 5 per cent of total Gross Merchandise Value.
Mumbai: India stands among the top four countries in the Asia-pacific regions with the highest number of online fraud incidents according to Asia-Pacific Fraud Insight report released by Experian, a global information service company.
The report has highlighted the prevalence of identity theft and other fraud trends existing in India in relation to sectors such as financial services (including insurance), retail and telecommunication.
Among the top four countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the report noted that India has the highest digital adoption, digital banking account sign-up and utilisation.
Despite, a high frequency of fraud incidents, consumers in India are generally more tolerant and willing to accept the occasional fraud involving minor monetary losses if given assurance of non-recurrence by the companies.
“Indian consumers also show high satisfaction to companies’ efforts in handing fraud. This indicates to a possible gap between perception — the lack of awareness and understanding of consumer about methods in which frauds occur online and the actual occurrences of fraud itself,” it said.
Out of the three sectors, Indian retail merchants experienced high fraud rates of as much as 5 per cent of total Gross Merchandise Value.
The survey noted that the potential risk of fraud is seen greatest in online payments, which is expected to grow in tandem with the availability of digital customer relationships as more companies – telcos, ecommerce and banks now offer online payments.
According to the survey, e-commerce and branded retailers are at the highest risk of seeing customer churn as 67 per cent indicated their willingness to switch to another online retailer in the event of fraud.