ASEAN Telcos Face Growing Pressure to Combat Mobile Scams

Mobile operators across Southeast Asia face a growing challenge as telecom-enabled scams rise rapidly, putting consumer trust and digital adoption under increasing strain.

A new report from the GSMA, the global industry body for mobile operators, reveals a surge in scam victims across the ASEAN region and urges mobile network operators (MNOs) to take decisive action to protect their customers.

The ASEAN Consumer Scam Report 2025: Victims Rising, Defences Under Strain finds that 45% of consumers across Southeast Asia now report falling victim to scams, a steep increase from 31% in just one year.

This data places mobile networks at the heart of the issue, as scammers primarily target users through mobile channels like voice calls, SMS and messaging apps.

Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific at GSMA, says: “Consumer trust is the bedrock of ASEAN’s digital economy. Our latest data reveals a crisis of confidence. People are changing how they behave online – and in some cases, walking away altogether.

"Unless we act decisively and together, we risk losing the momentum that digitalisation has built across Southeast Asia.”

Mobile is the frontline of scam activity

The GSMA report confirms that scams in ASEAN countries are rooted in mobile activity.

While digital fraud often cuts across channels, the initial points of contact are almost always mobile-based.

OTT (over-the-top) messaging apps, traditional voice calls, social platforms, SMS and email make up the most common routes scammers use to initiate contact.

The report says: “Involvement is overwhelmingly mobile and multi-channel: victims most often cite OTT messaging, voice calls and social platforms, with SMS and email still present.”

This multi-channel threat requires equally multi-channel defences.

Criminals now mix different tactics—phishing links, fake support calls, and social engineering—to build layered scams that are harder to spot and harder to stop.

“Defences must be channel-specific, caller display and screening for voice, sender-ID and content controls for SMS, rapid platform escalation for suspicious behaviour on social media and tighter app-to-person guardrails in OTT," the report argues.

This signals a need for operators to shift from fragmented, reactive measures to a more comprehensive security approach, focused on each channel's vulnerabilities.

From infrastructure to intelligence: The MNO advantage

The GSMA sets out a framework for how MNOs can evolve from communication service providers into key security partners.

Far from being a passive carrier of traffic, the operator network becomes a frontline of defence against fraud, with actionable intelligence to spot and stop threats before they reach consumers.

One major opportunity lies in securing what the report calls the “hot routes”, the most abused communication channels.

“Focus on the channels that matter most: voice and OTT voice/messaging,” the report advises.

This includes expanding verified caller display, strengthening SMS sender-ID policies and scaling takedown mechanisms for social media scams.

In parallel, the GSMA suggests a strategic data-sharing approach.

Though privacy remains a concern for 97% of users, there is openness to selective data sharing if it improves fraud prevention.

According to the report, 72% of consumers are comfortable with operators sharing limited information, such as fraud indicators, and this figure rises to 78% when limited to high-risk moments like suspicious transactions.

The report outlines how “simple yes/no Digital Identity signals,” such as SIM change flags, number verification or coarse location data, can be shared with banks and fintech firms to help prevent fraud.

These capabilities are aligned with GSMA Open Gateway-style APIs (application programming interfaces), allowing partners to detect suspicious activity without accessing private content or compromising user privacy.

By monetising these signals, MNOs not only support customer safety but create new revenue streams by offering fraud detection as a service to financial and digital commerce partners.

Scaling responses and fixing the reporting chain

Another critical issue flagged in the report is the fragmented nature of scam reporting in the region.

Victims typically report scams to a mix of banks, police and platforms, with no shared visibility across these parties.

This siloed approach creates gaps where scams go untracked and unresolved.

The GSMA calls for operators to integrate more closely with other stakeholders to form a unified response system.

It argues that “no single institution sees the full picture, so cases fall through the cracks without coordinated handoffs”.

The aim is to create a “no-wrong-door” system where every report triggers a fast, auditable investigation.

Technology is also a factor. Traditional rule-based filters are no match for scams powered by artificial intelligence and social engineering.

The report notes that mobile operators are starting to use “AI-driven pattern recognition to spot emerging scam tactics in real time, at a scale manual rules can’t match”.

By deploying artificial intelligence at the network edge, closer to where traffic enters or exits the network, MNOs can detect anomalies across channels, improving accuracy and reaction times without infringing on user privacy.

Trust is the new differentiator

The GSMA report ends with a clear message: the telco sector now holds the power to rebuild digital trust.

Consumers are no longer passive; they expect proactive protection. According to the report, 81% say they would switch financial providers if they believed another company offered stronger security.

The organisations that make protection clear, speed up recovery and explain their data use in plain language will not only reduce losses and liability but also gain market share.

GSMA calls on MNOs to recognise the new mandate: protect users or risk losing them.

The report concludes: “The organisations that make protection obvious, accelerate recovery and explain their data use in plain language will reduce losses, limit liability and win share.”