Identity theft, ATM fraud top payments security concerns in Philippines – MasterCard

MANILA, Philippines – Consumers across Southeast Asia including the Philippines feel safer paying in a brick and mortar environment as opposed to online, according to a research conducted by MasterCard.

According to the MasterCard Safety and Security Index,  consumers across Southeast Asia cited identity theft and ATM-related fraud as the top two security concerns when it comes to electronic payments.

About 42 percent of consumers in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore Thailand, and Vietnam) were most concerned with ATM-related fraud such as a stolen card, card cloning or skimming.

In the Greater China markets (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), this figure was 31 percent.

Consumers across Southeast Asia (35 percent) and Greater China (32 percent) were almost as equally concerned about identity theft in relation to data breaches.

This includes personal data such as bank details, personal IDs, addresses, and signatures that are stolen or compromised through websites.

In both regions, however, it appears these concerns do not directly stem from consumers’ own personal experiences but rather, as a result of the perceived severity of fraud based on what was reported in the media.

The report also showed that in general, consumers across Southeast Asia, and the markets of Taiwan and Hong Kong still feel safer paying in a brick and mortar environment as opposed to online. In this regard however, China differed, being the only market where consumers felt paying online was safer than in an actual brick and mortar store; even more so than in Singapore.

When looking at online payments, almost every consumer in the Greater China markets had made an online payment in the past year. Consumers in China (62 percent) particularly favored the use of digital wallets in online electronic payments over those in Hong Kong (14 percent) and Taiwan (29 percent).

Meanwhile, the report  also reinforced that banks continue to play a critical role in ensuring payment safety and security for consumers in Southeast Asia. This is both, because of the high levels of trust consumers place in banks as well as the reliance that consumers have on banks to help them resolve issues that crop up in this area.

Banks are often the first line of defense and recourse for the affected consumer – nearly half of all consumers in Southeast Asia who experienced ATM fraud first approached their card-issuing banks for advice.

“The fact that most cardholders have a primary relationship with their banks, has an obvious and deep-rooted co-relation to their sentiment, around who they trust most when it comes to ensuring the safety and security of electronic payments. This was emphatically reflected in the feedback from all the markets in Southeast Asia and Greater China. However, in Singapore in particular, in addition to banks, consumers also placed significant trust in the government, which is a natural outcome given the country’s strong regulatory environment and overall reputation around safety and security,” said Ari Sarker, co-president, Asia/Pacific at  MasterCard.

None of the respondents surveyed in Southeast Asia placed any trust in local websites, suggesting there is still a lot of work to be done by local ecommerce merchants to ensure that they meet global security standards for payments and build consumer confidence on this front.

In Greater China aside from banks and governments, merchants were also seen to have a growing responsibility in ensuring payment safety and security, with 28 percent of consumers in these markets going to merchants as their first recourse in seeking resolution for payment safety and security issues. Furthermore, merchants in these markets were instrumental in solving 40 percent of all online electronic payment disputes.