The global trend shows a significant increase in mobile phone usage for payments, transactions, social network logins, and purchases, among many other activities. The convenience of doing everything from your mobile phone is undeniable—it’s easy, fast, and reduces the reliance on cash. However, this growing dependency also brings new risks, as cybercriminals increasingly target the mobile ecosystem, especially banking and financial apps, to carry out fraudulent activities. Specific cyberattacks, such as smishing (phishing via SMS), vishing (phishing via voice), and SIM swapping, are designed to exploit mobile device vulnerabilities.
A recent study by the GSMA Association, conducted across 34 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, found that prevalent mobile money fraud types include identity fraud (90%), social engineering schemes (88%), internal fraud (87%), SIM swapping fraud (79%), and cyber fraud (60%). According to the GSMA, these findings “highlight the need for a more sophisticated, multi-layered approach to mobile money fraud management, involving advanced technology, cross-sector collaboration, and continuous adaptation to the evolving fraud landscape.”
Another study by BioCatch in North America reported that mobile banking usage increased to 73% in 2023, but this rise also led to a surge in mobile fraud, which jumped from 47% in 2022 to 61% in 2023.
Additionally, a report from Statista indicates that in 2022, 9% of global cyberattacks were conducted through mobile devices. In December of that year, users worldwide experienced over 2.2 million cyberattacks via their mobile phones. Furthermore, during the last quarter of 2023, approximately 440,000 malicious installation packages were detected on mobile devices globally. Statista's data also reveals that in 2022, 76% and 71% of organizations globally were targeted by smishing and vishing attacks, respectively.
Digital Solutions
In response to this scenario, Plusmo has developed a suite of new tools for fraud prevention and reduction, protecting users' mobile identity while doing mobile operations/transactions. As a creator and integrator of mobile tools, we offer a complete solution against mobile identity frauds that are ideal for banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, and e-commerce portals. This solution validates transactions through the customer's mobile phone.
