02-03-2026 
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The Philippines is positioning itself as a premier digital hub in Southeast Asia through the adoption of emerging technologies in government and businesses, but an expert warned that transitioning to a digital-first economy won’t likely be smooth sailing for the country’s critical information infrastructure and financial industry, as cases of synthetic identity fraud are becoming more prevalent.
In an interview with local daily BusinessWorld, iProov Chief Technology Officer Dominic Forrest said cases of synthetic identity fraud in the country are “vastly underestimated,” urging companies to ramp up and update their security verification systems to counter the growing threat.
“We strongly believe that the amount of synthetic fraud out there is vastly underestimated. For 2026, the scale of this will start to become understood,” he said.
In the first half of 2025 alone, the Philippines registered a 291% increase in synthetic identity document fraud compared to the same period in the previous year, with artificial intelligence (AI) said to have fueled the rise, according to identity verification platform Sumsub’s internal statistics.
By the end of 2025, a separate report released by the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) stated that there had been a decline in overall digital fraud incidents due to improved law enforcement. But while this dwindling number of cybercrime incidents is cause for celebration, it remains above the norm, and the PNP-ACG was quick to point out the need to keep up with the evolving tactics of cybercriminals, a matter greatly emphasized by Forrest with BusinessWorld.
Forrest explained that, unlike traditional fraud, where bad actors illegally access a victim’s account, synthetic identity fraud is harder to detect, as it involves an individual or organized crime groups creating a fake persona using a blend of sham and real information to make their identity seem legitimate.As transactions are mostly done digitally these days, Forrest urged companies to reinforce their account recovery, password reset, and app installation methods on new devices, as these are common weak points that attackers target to commit the crime.
While the financial industry and the Philippines’ information infrastructure are known to be the most vulnerable to such attacks, Forrest said the general workforce sector isn’t immune from this either, noting that bad actors can infiltrate remote jobs.
“It’s perfectly possible for one person to do the interviews, get a job, and then assign somebody else to commit a crime,” Forrest said, adding the need to strengthen companies’ live detection for facial biometrics.
The Philippines remains a hotbed for digital fraud despite the government enacting laws to curb the crime. A report published by TransUnion Philippines in April 2025 stated that the country has consistently exceeded the global digital fraud rate of 5.4% since 2020. In December 2025, local businesses registered about 4 trillion pesos ($67.8 billion) in losses due to digital fraud.
Watch | Combatting threats in digital banking: WFIS 2025 Philippines Highlights
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