SOME of the country's top banks warned of a growing number of increasingly convincing online fraud schemes, using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
"The barriers to entry have gone down. GenAI and no-code capabilities bring broad tools to low-level, unskilled actors," Gabby Tomas, senior vice-president and group head for operations of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), said during a webinar of Fintech Fireside Asia on Tuesday.
"While we aren't yet seeing deepfakes and voice fakes, we are seeing a relentless increase in the volume of attacks -- more contextual, more convincing, and highly targeted toward vulnerable segments of the market."
Mr. Tomas added that fraudsters are now doing their homework by analyzing data to pinpoint victims where they are more likely to succeed.
GoTyme Chief Information Security Officer Albert P. Dela Cruz said that AI has enabled deepfake impersonation attacks, high-level leadership team management scams, and AI-assisted social engineering that can dynamically adapt during conversations.
"If there's one major thing AI has done to change the game for fraudsters, it's that AI has essentially industrialized fraud," Mr. Dela Cruz said during the webinar.
According to a report from Fintech News Philippines, potential fraud losses due to GenAI could reach around $40 billion by 2027 in the United States alone.
In 2024, scammers siphoned off over $1.03 trillion globally, and with the rise of AI, scam tactics pose a greater concern, according to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance.
The Short Message Service (SMS) phishing specifically has seen a rise in the Philippines in the past couple of months, Mr. Dela Cruz said.
He added fraudsters are using IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catchers, devices that impersonate cell towers, to intercept SMS messages, including from wealthy neighborhoods and malls. The device can also mimic phone numbers to make phishing attempts more convincing.
Mr. Tomas said that the reality is that even the so-called educated online can still fall victim to these fraudsters, as they exploit structural, emotional, and psychological vulnerabilities.
So, being digitally aware and tech-savvy is necessary to recognize current fraud schemes, Mr. Tomas said. He added that regulations, such as the recently enacted Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, also play a crucial role in protecting consumers. -- Edg Adrian A. Eva