• Amongst businesses, almost one quarter (24%) of Hong Kong respondents identified fraud as the top risk with the greatest potential impact on their organisation
• Third-party fraud (25%), account takeover (24%) and scam or authorised fraud (21%) were the top three causes of fraud losses reported by business leaders
• More than half (55%) said their customers had been victimised by caller ID spoofing according to business leaders, while 37% of consumers reported being targeted with digital fraud in a recent three-month period

Insights from TransUnion’s (NYSE: TRU) H2 2026 Update to the Top Fraud Trends Report reveal that identity and trust has become the new battleground in Hong Kong’s evolving fraud landscape. Fraudsters increasingly exploit the trust consumers place in familiar communication channels to gain access to identity data. Once identity information is compromised, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation enable fraudsters to turn it into more convincing, scalable and personalised attacks, further challenging businesses’ ability to determine whether an identity or interaction can be trusted.

The evolving nature of fraud continues to expose Hong Kong businesses to considerable financial losses according to a survey conducted by TransUnion of 1,600 business leaders across eight markets — Hong Kong, Brazil, Canada, India, the Philippines, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Among the 200 Hong Kong respondents, they reported their companies lost an equivalent of 5.1% of annual revenue on average due to fraud in the past year.

Given the scale of these financial losses, Hong Kong businesses clearly recognised fraud as a significant threat. Almost one-quarter (24%) of surveyed business leaders identified it as the risk with the greatest potential impact on their business, making it the greatest risk type. When asked which fraud has been the predominant cause of losses in the past year, third-party fraud (use of stolen identities to open accounts) was the top answer at 25%. This was followed by account takeover (unauthorised individuals take over someone’s online account) at 24%, and scam or authorised fraud (a dishonest scheme intended to deceive a person into giving up something of value) at 21%. While these fraud types take different forms, each exploit identity or trust as a point of vulnerability.

Identity-Based Fraud Accelerates as Trusted Communications Channels and Data Breaches Fuel Risk

This exploitation is increasingly evident across different communication channels. More than half of Hong Kong businesses reported that their customers had been victimised by caller ID spoofing, where fraudsters deliberately falsify the caller identity to impersonate trusted organisations or individuals, at 55%. This was followed by SMS spoofing at 54% and email spoofing at 48%.

Consumers’ experiences further demonstrate how frequently fraudsters use familiar communication channels to target personal information. According to TransUnion’s Consumer Pulse Study for Q3 2026, more than one-third (37%) of Hong Kong consumers reported being targeted by fraud through email, online platforms, phone calls or text messages between April and July 2026. Among those who said they were targeted, the top scheme they reported was vishing at 36%.

Beyond personal information obtained through trusted communication channels, data breaches also continuously feed the identity-based fraud supply chain. This exposure is already affecting Hong Kong consumers, with one in five (20%) reporting that they had been notified of their identity or account information being exposed in a data breach between April and July 2026.

As more genuine identity information becomes available, fraudsters can use AI tools to create increasingly convincing synthetic identities, where real and fabricated information are merged to form a fictitious identity for the purpose of illicit activities. This growing sophistication is reflected in the experience of Hong Kong businesses, with almost one-third (32%) of business leaders reporting that synthetic identity fraud had increased by more than 25%. Looking ahead, when asked which fraud types they expect to grow the most over the next 12 to 24 months, 68% ranked synthetic identity among their top three concerns. However, over half (54%) said their organisations were least prepared to manage this type of fraud.

“Fraud in Hong Kong is increasingly an identity and trust challenge. Fraudsters are exploiting trusted communication channels to gather personal information, which can then be combined with AI and automation to create more convincing, scalable and personalised attacks,” said Devon Sin, chief product officer at TransUnion Asia Pacific. “As fraud evolves, verifying an isolated identity at a single point in time is no longer enough. Businesses need a more holistic view of trust by combining identity, behavioural, device and network intelligence to better distinguish genuine consumers from increasingly sophisticated fraud across the consumer lifecycle.”

Business Face Growing Difficulties Distinguishing Genuine Customers from Fraudulent Ones

As more identity information is exposed, fraudsters can feed this data into AI tools to create sophisticated synthetic identities and deepfake documents, making traditional ways of identity verification increasingly difficult. The scale of this challenge is reflected in the report, in which 97% of Hong Kong respondents expressed concern that fraud risks are evolving faster than their businesses’ ability to detect and prevent them. Hong Kong is also stepping up efforts to address AI-enabled fraud. In its 2026 Policy Address¹, the government outlined plans to regulate deepfakes and remove online content that may constitute financial fraud, as concerns grow over the misuse of AI technologies.

The increasing sophistication of AI-assisted identity fraud is also placing greater operational pressure on businesses. Almost half (45%) of the Hong Kong business leaders surveyed reported spending over 30 minutes manually reviewing each individual transaction for potential fraud, while one in five (20%) said that a quarter or more of manually reviewed account applications were ultimately legitimate customers. The findings lend support to resource strain, with almost all (97%) of respondents reporting fraud has led to increased operational costs for their business.

“The rise of AI-assisted fraud is making it increasingly difficult for businesses to distinguish genuine customers from fraudulent ones. As fraud becomes more sophisticated, organisations face growing operational pressure to investigate suspicious activity while maintaining a seamless customer experience,” added Sin. “Identity has become one of the most valuable assets for fraudsters. In an era where fraudsters can increasingly mimic legitimate identities and behaviours, businesses need to look beyond any single signal to make trust decisions. Greater intelligence sharing and a more connected view of risk will be critical to combating evolving fraud, protecting customers and supporting sustainable growth.”

Download the TransUnion H2 2026 Update to the Top Fraud Trends Report for more information and insights about the global fraud trends.

¹ 2026 Policy Address: Combating the use of AI in criminal activities

As the global economy shifts and consumer credit markets evolve, credit decisioning requirements have become even more complex and customized. To better address the rapidly evolving needs and priorities of financial institutions, TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) has announced an expansion of its go-to-market strategy for decisioning solutions by including leading decisioning platforms within its global Strategic Alliance Distribution Partner Program.

The expansion was driven by TransUnion’s extensive research of how to best meet long-term decisioning needs within the financial services industry. The findings uncovered a growing need for more open and flexible platforms with self-service capabilities—both of which empower business users to change custom rules, add new data sources, and update custom risk models to adapt to the market in real-time. To deliver the best service possible, TransUnion’s world-class data and analytics solutions are now also available via Strategic Alliance partners for credit decisioning.

“Today’s announcement will ensure financial institutions—both large and small—gain access to world-class data and analytics solutions in rapid fashion,” said Aaron Smith, TransUnion’s vice president of global platform partnerships. “In selecting partners for the program, we engaged in a rigorous evaluation that included 130 categories and 20 sub-categories. Based on their assessment and our customers’ current and future needs, we partnered with industry-leading decisioning platforms like Provenir.”

The new partners expand on TransUnion’s existing Strategic Alliance Distribution Partner Program, which includes leading providers within Digital Onboarding, Data Analytics, Core platforms, and more. The addition of decisioning providers will meet customers’ rapidly evolving needs for increasingly complex and custom decisioning requirements across the customer lifecycle. Business users can greatly expedite the delivery of much-needed roadmap items and key functionality that can immediately solve for their requirements.

“Organizations must be able to make accurate credit decisions instantly to deliver superior customer experiences, and Provenir’s AI-powered decisioning platform makes it possible by bringing together the essential components of data, AI and decisioning,” said Bharath Vellore, General Manager, APAC for Provenir. “We’re enjoying great success partnering with TU to help clients respond quickly to market changes and make smarter, real-time decisions.”

Customers who require an industry-standard solution to drive their prequal and prescreen strategies can rely on TransUnion for its decisioning solutions and ongoing support, keeping their data, attributes, and scores available in a flexible, scalable manner which fits their needs.

Find out more about TransUnion’s Strategic Alliance Distribution Partner Program network here.

TransUnion is consolidating its data analytics and digital onboarding solution to help Hong Kong’s banks and money lenders grow their businesses by making better, more informed decisions faster. TransUnion’s latest ‘House of Analytics’ solutions suite combines data science and business consulting services to help accelerate decision making on financial products such as loans and mortgages. In addition, to help lenders capitalise on Hong Kong’s recently announced Wealth Management Connect initiative, TransUnion announced a Cross-Border eKYC (electronic know your customer) upgrade to its TruValidate Digital Onboarding solution.

“Having served Hong Kong businesses and consumers for more than 40 years, TransUnion is committed to transforming our solutions to meet the evolving needs of the market,” said Marie Claire Lim Moore, CEO of TransUnion Hong Kong. “As we look to the future of finance, TransUnion is advancing its capabilities to provide new solutions, models and insights to support the thriving FinTech ecosystem in Hong Kong.”

Introducing the ‘House of Analytics’ portfolio

The House of Analytics is a suite of solutions that uses machine learning and predictive modelling to help businesses make better use of their data to solve business challenges. House of Analytics customers have the opportunity to enrich their data with TransUnion’s credit bureau which holds millions of individual credit records and currently over 1,000 CreditVision behaviour algorithms to improve their modelling and help meet their business goals. These information and insights have already helped TransUnion’s bank and money lender customers to achieve 10-30% improvement from their pre-TransUnion-solution benchmark.

TransUnion is also increasing the range of behaviour algorithms in its CreditVision solution by 30% to over 1,300 in 2022 to provide additional dimensions of consumer behaviour and more use cases. These will further strengthen the capability of the House of Analytics to help solve customers’ needs.

This enhanced analytics enablement suite of solutions combines data science technologies with consulting services to run analyses on how rich data can be used to identify and overcome business problems. TransUnion’s panel of experts review all relevant data to develop insights and models that address use-case-specific needs for products such as personal loans, auto loans, credit card applications and mortgages.

The House of Analytics includes a sandbox facility for customers to test their data in a safe, enclosed environment to determine its usefulness. Customers can run sandbox testing independently themselves or invite TransUnion experts to support. Within the House, TransUnion is looking to incorporate federated learning (a machine learning technique) in the near future allowing organizations to collaborate on model training without giving away proprietary data. This will help the financial services sector and adjacent industries to unleash the power of data by connecting data sources and co-create an enormous data ecosystem to accelerate digital innovation in the future.

Cross-border Digital Onboarding for banks joining Wealth Management Connect initiatives

Following the recent announcement of Wealth Management Connect schemes, TransUnion’s TruValidate Digital Onboarding solution will now be expanded to support cross border remote account opening and will add new features such as AML (anti-money laundering) screening and SME account opening. 

TransUnion is supporting banks in both Hong Kong and China that have participated in the Northbound and Southbound schemes respectively to help them better evaluate potential customers from different capital markets. The solution provides flexible, direct deployment and an excellent user experience utilising facial recognition and NFC-based (Near Field Communication is a wireless data transfer technology) data capture matching against biometrics and official state data with 100% accuracy and additional tamper-proof safeguards. Investors simply input either their national ID card, a valid exit-entry permit for travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau (EEP) or a mainland Chinese passport to open cross-border bank accounts online.

First launched in Hong Kong in 2017, TransUnion’s TruValidate Digital Onboarding solution has transformed traditional, time consuming legacy onboarding processes. The proven, pre-built state-of-the-art solution is integrated with TransUnion data for screening, verification and credit decisioning and has a customizable front-end that plugs into a customer’s existing digital channels giving applicants a single streamlined hassle-free onboarding service.

Jerry Ying, Chief Product Officer of TransUnion APAC, said: “In announcing the House of Analytics and Cross-border Digital Onboarding today, we are aiming to equip banks and money lenders with the latest fintech capabilities to build their businesses faster through informed decision-making. We will continue to build ever more robust solutions for the financial services sector and to help sustain trust between lenders and consumers.”

TransUnion is an active participant in Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021. In addition to joining panel discussions on gauging and understanding credit risk, RegTech adoption and cybersecurity, TransUnion is also hosting two online masterclasses for financial practitioners to learn about customer acquisitions and tackling the SME market.

Making claims is much easier and more intuitive with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered personal assistant, Amy, who will walk customers through the process. Consumers can say goodbye to all the traditional claim forms. Customer experience will be greatly enhanced with the simplified claim procedures. User verification is also quick and simple with electronic Know Your Customer technology (eKYC) and facial recognition technology.

Eddie Chang, Chief Executive Officer of Wesurance, said, “At Wesurance, it is our goal to use technology to develop the best digital insurance solutions which will allow customers to purchase insurance policies in a more enjoyable way, hence helping to increase the insurance penetration rate among the younger generation. AI and cutting-edge identity verification solutions are major enablers of this goal, allowing us to create a service delivery channel at the consumer’s fingertips that is cost-effective and hassle free. With the expertise and support of our partners Allied World Assurance Company, Ltd and TransUnion we have been able to launch a comprehensive mobile travel insurance solution that ticks all the boxes for Hong Kong’s busy consumers.”

Amy, the customer-centric personal assistant, will help customers 24/7 anywhere they go. A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) database provides a vast bank of knowledge that enables Amy to deliver instant in-app responses to over 80% of customers’ queries. Unresolved questions are immediately directed to internal representatives to provide real-time support. Amy also sends reminders and notifications to create a seamless consumer journey from start to finish.

Wesurance uses eKYC technology, powered by TransUnion’s IDVision solution suite that utilises advanced technologies such as document forensic algorithms, device intelligence, facial recognition and data analytics to verify a user’s identity. Users simply need to take a photo of their HKID card and then a selfie. In just a few moments, IDVision eKYC can accurately verify the user’s identity.

Lawrence Tsong, President, Asia Pacific of TransUnion said, “The collaboration with Wesurance marks a significant milestone for TransUnion as it is the first time our eKYC solutions will be used in the Hong Kong insurance industry. IDVision eKYC solutions help transform the way financial institutions onboard new customers, providing a smooth customer experience, in a secure manner while fulfilling KYC compliance processes. As a result, our partner companies can protect their businesses and bottom lines from fraud.”

When users make their claim, they just need to answer Amy’s questions and take photos of their supporting documents. Claims are processed quickly and users typically notified of the result within a few days. Thanks to the auto-fill function and optical character recognition (OCR) technology, users can fill in a lot less information when they purchase insurance policies on the platform. All they need is to insert their phone number and address.

In addition, all charges are transparent, with no hidden fees or small print in the contract. eKYC will make it easier for users to purchase not only travel insurance but also other insurance products such as life insurance on the platform in the future.

Mr. Chang concluded, “At Wesurance, we deliver InsurTech services that allow insurance providers to offer the same simplicity and customer centricity that Hong Kong residents expect in other areas of their lives. Travel insurance policies are our first range of product. We plan to launch other insurance products on this platform at a later stage. We are confident that this mobile platform will transform the way consumers use insurance in Hong Kong.”

The Wesurance app can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or Google Play.

All new customers will enjoy a cash rebate equivalent to 40% of the premium which they can use for their next purchase. Both referrers and referees will receive cash discounts. For further information about the promotional offer, please visit www.wesurance.com.hk or https://www.facebook.com/wesurance/.

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About Wesurance

Established in April 2017, Wesurance Limited is a Hong Kong-based financial technology company providing advanced InsurTech solutions to local consumers. Through its subsidiary, Wesurance Digital, the company offers the Wesurance mobile platform which is the local insurance industry’s first mobile solution to integrate an AI-driven digital personal assistant and facial recognition (eKYC) for user identity verification. The platform greatly simplifies the way consumers purchase insurance policies and make claims, achieving enhanced customer experience and satisfaction, and helping insurers save cost and improve efficiency and profitability. For further information, please visit www.wesurance.com.hk.

About Transunion (NYSE: TRU)

Information is a powerful thing. At TransUnion, we realize that. We are dedicated to finding innovative ways information can be used to help individuals make better and smarter decisions. We help uncover unique stories, trends and insights behind each data point, using historical information as well as alternative data sources. This allows a variety of markets and businesses to better manage risk and consumers to better manage their credit, personal information and identity. Today, TransUnion has a global presence in more than 30 countries and a leading presence in several international markets across North America, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Through the power of information, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies and families and safer communities worldwide.

We call this Information for Good. http://www.transunion.hk