FRAUD activities across Southeast Asia have reached a critical stage, transforming from isolated incidents into sophisticated, large-scale operations orchestrated by organised syndicates operating much like legitimate businesses.
This alarming trend was highlighted by Niki Luhur, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Indonesia-based VIDA Group, who called on Malaysia’s cybersecurity authorities to reinforce digital defence systems to meet the growing threat.
“Fraud today is no longer about individuals seeking quick profits; it has become a business. When crime operates like an industry, security cannot rely on assumptions built for a different era,” Niki said, as reported by PR Newswire.
His remarks were delivered during a presentation titled ‘From Scammers to Syndicates: The Rise of Commercial Fraud in Southeast Asia’ at CISO Malaysia 2026, a forum gathering Chief Information Security Officers from across the country.
VIDA Group specialises in digital identity and fraud prevention and is licensed by the Certification Authority under Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs.
During the session, Niki detailed how artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping the digital crime economy, automating operations and scaling fraud into a structured industry-level threat.
The warning comes at a crucial moment for Malaysia’s banking sector, with Bank Negara Malaysia planning to phase out SMS-based one-time passwords (OTP) by June 2026, highlighting weaknesses in legacy authentication systems and the need for a complete redesign of security strategies.
Effective fraud prevention, Niki emphasised, requires a layered and coordinated approach to identity protection.
“It demands integration of identity verification, device integrity checks, authenticity detection, and PKI validation into a unified system capable of withstanding large-scale AI-driven attacks,” he said.
The message underscores the urgency for governments and financial institutions across Southeast Asia to modernise cybersecurity frameworks in response to rapidly evolving, industry-level digital threats. - February 6, 2026
