Ring the alarm: Prepaid card fraud in Singapore among highest worldwide

Consumers are shaking their heads.

Singaporeans are 4th among the most unhappy after a fraud experience, according to a research commissioned by Aite and ACI, and ranks 5th among countries in terms of consumers who experienced fraud on their prepaid cards.

10% of Singapore’s prepaid card consumers have experienced fraud over the past 5 years, while India ranked 1st, with 18% of its consumers victimized, followed by China, Indonesia, and Italy at 17%, 11% and 10% respectively.

Despite the high fraud rates in Singapore, only 15% of consumers in the city switch financial institutions after experiencing fraud, and choose to just place their cards in the back of their wallets. This resulted to Singapore being the 2nd country with the highest rate of back-of-wallet behavior at 86%, next to Indonesia at 88%.

Here’s more:

Consumers are putting their personal and financial data at risk when they act in risky ways, and they deserve better education related to protecting themselves against fraud. Encouraging consumers to work with their financial institution to protect themselves is a true win-win scenario. Financial institutions can lower customer attrition rates and back-of-wallet behavior through better consumer communication and education.

For financial institutions:

Educate and engage consumers: Help consumers understand how they can help protect themselves against fraud, and work with the financial institution to combat it.

Provide specific examples: Consumers do not understand the importance of avoiding risky behavior such as shopping online on a public computer or not securing their smartphone or tablet when it is not in use. Public computers or those without adequate security software put consumers’ personal and financial data a high risk of being stolen. As adoption of mobile wallets and online banking increases, securing mobile devices is increasingly important.

Communicate more effectively: Ensure consumers understand that replacement cards are safe to use, even after a data breach. Make fraud protection protocols easy to understand and available at all customer touchpoints (i.e., online, contact centers, mailers, etc.).

Improve customer service: After experiencing fraud, consumers may be traumatized or emotional. Ensure agents are sympathetic and helpful to the greatest extent possible in order to retain victimized customers.