Fraud protection is crucial

THE top consideration of some consumers when selecting financial account providers is those that can provide fraud and scam protection.

A total of 32% of respondents to a survey ranks fraud prevention as their No.1 concern while for 24%, it is the second most important consideration.

This compares with ease of use which is selected as No. 1 for 31% of respondents.

Sound environmental and green policies are only considered a top factor by 3% while 39% ranks it last of eight in the list of considerations, reveals Fico’s consumer fraud survey.

The concern about crime does not extend to anti-money laundering with only 4% ranking it as their No. 1 consideration for selecting an account provider.

Identity checks that are too difficult or time-consuming have stopped some consumers from opening a range of different accounts.

Biometric methods are popular security choices as 48% of the respondents have a strong preference for using a fingerprint scan, 43% a face scan and 34% an iris scan.

Despite expressing strong preference for newer biometric security methods, 34% of Malaysian respondents also express a preference for the old-fashioned security method of username and password, according to the survey.

A total of 5.7% of Malaysian respondents say they know that their stolen identity has been used by criminals to open financial accounts.

In percentage terms the figures may seem low, according to Fico, but when it is equated to the number of victims, the scale of the problem becomes more alarming as 5.7% of the adult population is equivalent to 1.3 million people.