Indonesian Banks Flag Social Engineering as Their Dominant Fraud Threat, BioCatch Survey Finds
Indonesian Banks Flag Social Engineering as Their Dominant Fraud Threat, BioCatch Survey Finds #
Social engineering scams are the fraud type Indonesian bank fraud leaders fear most, ranking above every other category of financial crime, according to a survey commissioned by behavioral biometrics firm BioCatch.
The survey polled 100 fraud-management, anti-money laundering, and compliance team leaders at Indonesian banks, all at manager level or above. It forms part of a broader research effort in which BioCatch commissioned 12 parallel surveys covering a combined 1,200 banking leaders across 12 geographies.
More respondents in Indonesia ranked social engineering scams as their primary concern than any other fraud type, according to BioCatch. The majority of these scams, the company said, are traced back to social media platforms and messaging apps, with one-time-password interception, romance scams, and investment fraud all prominent in the findings.
Despite widespread concern, Indonesian banks report comparatively modest financial damage so far. Just 34% of respondents estimated their institution’s annual fraud losses above $10 million, among the lowest figures of any country covered in the study series. Still, 43% of respondents reported increasing fraud attempts at their organization, and a nearly identical 42% said fraud losses are also on the rise.
Half of those surveyed identified coached user journeys, in which fraudsters guide victims step by step through transactions in real time, as one of their institution’s most difficult challenges to address.
Victim reimbursement practices in Indonesia differ markedly from other countries in the survey. More than four in ten (42%) Indonesian banking leaders said their organization handles scam reimbursement on a case-by-case basis, a figure 27 percentage points above the next-highest country in the series, suggesting no uniform compensation framework is yet in place.
The findings come as Indonesia’s real-time payment infrastructure continues to grow. The QRIS QR-code payment system and BI-FAST instant transfer network have seen rapid adoption, expanding the attack surface available to fraudsters.
BioCatch, which markets behavioral biometric tools designed to detect anomalous user behavior during digital banking sessions, said the Indonesia results are consistent with a global pattern of scam growth it has documented across multiple markets.
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