NAIROBI, Kenya, May 8 – A new study has revealed that the online gaming sector in Kenya, which includes online sports betting and poker, is the most affected by suspected digital fraud attempts.
According to the TransUnion 2024 State of Omnichannel Fraud Report, in 2023, the country experienced a suspected digital fraud rate in the online gaming sector of 10.2 percent.
The report’s findings are based on proprietary insights from TransUnion’s global intelligence network, which was released yesterday.
Furthermore, the study shows that there has been an accelerating rate of digital fraud in other sectors of the country, such as retail, financial services, telecommunications, travel & leisure, and communities (online dating, forums, etc.).
“TransUnion found across industries in 2023, 3.3% of all transactions where the consumer was in Kenya were flagged as being suspected Digital Fraud – a 16% YoY decrease,” the study revealed.
The chief executive officer at Trans Union Kenya, Morris Maina, attributed the rising rate of digital fraud attempts to fraudsters using fabricated or stolen identities to create new accounts that they could control.
“In lieu of using traditional tactics to gain access to and ultimately compromise existing accounts, they are increasingly choosing to create new accounts that they can control themselves,” Maina said.
“These fraudsters leverage synthetic identities assembled in large part through the use of credentials gathered as a result of one or multiple data breaches,” he added.
However, according to the report, globally, retail surpassed gaming as the industry saw the highest rate of suspected digital fraud in 2023 at 8.7 percent, up 21 percent year-on-year (YoY).
