Report reveals rise in suspected igaming fraud in Canada

TransUnion’s study found that the gambling industry was one of those most impacted by digital fraud attempts.

Canada.- TransUnion has released a report showing the effects of digital fraud attempts on various industries in the first half of 2024. It found that 5.74 per cent of all attempted digital transactions where in Canada involved suspected digital fraud. That’s a rise of 11 per cent year-over-year.

The survey found that gambling was the industry most impacted by potential digital fraud attempts, with suspected fraud in 9.6 per cent of transactions. That compares to 9.2 per cent for retail and 7.7 per cent for government transactions. The gambling industry saw the second-highest year-over-year increase at 79.3 per cent.

According to the survey, 54 per cent of Canadians said they were recently targeted by fraud attempts via email, phone call or text message. Phishing was the most common type, followed by smishing and vishing.

TransUnion Canada head of Identity Management and Fraud Solutions Patrick Boudreau said: “Protecting customers and their businesses from fraud is essential to enabling safe and tailored consumer experiences. These findings reveal that despite the good-faith efforts that are being undertaken by companies to identify and prevent fraud to date, fraudsters continue to evolve and it’s vital that fraud prevention methods keep up with the changing times.

“Businesses that aren’t already doing so should ensure that they are taking advantage of fraud prevention technologies such as identity verification, IP intelligence, device reputation and synthetic identity detection as critical components of their fraud prevention programs.”

In July, iGaming Ontario released its market performance report for the first quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year (FY). The handle from April 1 to June 30 was CA$18.4bn (US$13.3bn), a 3.4 per cent increase over the last quarter and a 31 per cent increase year-over-year.

Gaming revenue was CA$726m, a 5.2 per cent increase over Q4 and a 34 per cent increase year-over-year. Nearly 1.9m player accounts were active during Q1. The average monthly spend per active player account was $284.