According to a latest report by BioCatch, a total of over 1.5 lakhs money laundering accounts were found across APAC. Further, it is to be noted that there was an increase in voice scams of about 108 per cent.
Across the APAC region, mobile frauds has grown significantly. In 2023, 70 per cent of all reported frauds originated from mobile apps, up from 53 per cent in 2022.
Frauds in India have mainly been around account takeover via phishing and malware, mule accounts, impersonation scams and investment and part time jobs scams, said the report.
In Southeast Asia, frauds has been happening through phishing, money siphoning apps (malware), illegal pinjol loan apps, social media scams and malicious QR code payments.
Whether through SMS-mining or illegal loan apps, there has been an explosion in Android-based malware in Southeast Asia.
Malware developers continue to innovate, circumventing bank and Google Play Store defenses to harvest what they need from mobile devices to access digital banking accounts and then transfer away the victim’s funds to a money mule.
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Laundering networks are seen recruiting mules through job advertisements, social media posts, and phishing emails, often targeting vulnerable or financially distressed individuals who have access to corporate bank accounts with high transaction limits, said the report.
Historically, bad actors have sourced these mule accounts themselves, paying legitimate account-holders to receive and then transfer stolen funds to an account of the fraudster’s choosing.
“Where there are scams, there are mules. Criminal organizations use these mule accounts as intermediate stops between the victim’s bank account and the final account from which they plan to withdraw their stolen money,” said Tom Peacock, Director of Global Fraud Intelligence, BioCatch.
Detecting existing mule accounts is becoming one of the main priorities for banks, as well as establishing processes to proactively prevent them. It is to be noted that more than 150K confirmed mule accounts were recorded at banks across the region in 2023, the report highlighted.
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Financial institutions in APAC and around the world must do more to identify these mules, hamper their ability to open new accounts, and identify those legitimate accounts money launderers succeed in turning from good to bad, the report added.
Although scams continue to increase in both scale and sophistication across the APAC region, financial institutions can use their customers’ own behaviour to stop these scams before any damage is done.
