Fraudulent robocalls will rob mobile subscribers of US$58 bln in 2023 - Juniper Research

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 (Bernama) -- Mobile subscribers will lose US$58 billion to fraudulent robocalls globally in 2023, a rise from US$53 billion in 2022, according to a new report from Juniper Research, foremost experts assessing emerging communications technologies. (US$1=RM4.46)

According to Juniper Research in a statement, these losses will be driven by the increase in multifarious scam calls to deceive end users, such as unauthorised call forwarding or caller ID spoofing, with the end goal of financial gain.

Despite the ongoing development of robocalling mitigation frameworks, such as STIR/SHAKEN in North America, the report predicts that fraudsters’ ability to innovate fraud methods will drive these losses to reach US$70 billion globally by 2027.

STIR/SHAKEN includes standards to mitigate fraudulent methods popular in North America, such as caller ID spoofing, which imitates a legitimate enterprise through the use of temporary business numbers.

The report stated that North America continues to be the most impacted region by fraudulent robocalls, as its affluent nature provides larger monetary opportunities for fraudsters and will account for over half of the losses attributable to robocalling in 2023.

However, the report estimates that STIR/SHAKEN has reduced the year-on-year growth of fraudulent losses to robocalling in the region by 85 per cent between 2022 and 2023.

By 2025, fraudulent losses arising from robocalling are anticipated to decline for the first time in North America, owing to the widespread adoption of this framework.

The report urges stakeholders formulating frameworks outside North America to focus on region‑specific methods of fraud, such as unauthorised call forwarding, that will be more efficiently covered through tailored frameworks rather than via a reproduction of STIR/SHAKEN.

-- BERNAMA