Businesses lose $7m on average to fraud in past year: report

Fully online businesses in Singapore saw the sharpest spike, reporting a 64% YoY increase in fraud-related losses.

Businesses in Singapore lost an average of $7m to fraud over the past year, with online retailers bearing the brunt of the losses, according to the latest Adyen Retail Report 2025.

Fully online businesses in Singapore saw the sharpest spike, reporting a 64% YoY increase in fraud-related losses, whilst predominantly online businesses (90% online) reported a 39% increase. Even traditional businesses were not spared, with predominantly offline businesses (90% offline) seeing a 25% rise in fraud losses.

Chargebacks have emerged as a significant cost driver, making up 62% of fraud losses for fully online businesses, compared to 29% across all Singapore businesses.

According to Adyen, more than one-third (33%) of Singapore businesses experienced a cyber-attack or data breach in the past 12 months, whilst nearly 30% reported spikes in fraud attempts during peak sales seasons.

Singaporean consumers are also increasingly affected, with 30% of consumers falling victim to fraud in the past year, including incidents of identity theft, account takeover, and social engineering attacks.

Older generations are more financially impacted when fraud strikes. Baby Boomers who experienced fraud reported an average loss of $2,019, whilst Millennials and Gen Z reported average losses of $1,114 and $1,072, respectively.

To address rising threats, more than one-third (34%) of Singapore businesses plan to invest in AI-driven fraud prevention tools over the next year.

However, consumer anxiety over AI remains high, with 32% of Singaporeans expressing concern that AI could increase fraud risks, particularly among younger consumers, such as Gen Z, where 39% share these concerns.