The Challenge
Recognising the rapidly growing global threat of digitals scams and online fraud, the UNDP engaged ThinkPlaceX to take a coalition-based approach to deepen understanding on the impacts of digital scams on global development, as well as shape a collective global response to address the challenge.
The Global Anti-Scam Alliance reported that global losses from digital scams reached over $1.026 trillion USD in 2023, accounting for 1.05% of global GDP. However, the magnitude and scale are greater due to unreported cases, wider human costs and societal damages. Scams can impact victims and their communities by eroding trust in the digital economy, platforms, and services, undermining the benefits that digitalization could bring.
The UNDP recognised the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration as digital scams transcend national borders, sectors and disciplines, and continue to evolve in sophistication, including with AI and cryptocurrency.
“Recognising the complexity and scale of digital scams, the UNDP has taken a proactive approach to bring together a coalition of actors across sectors and regions to address the issue. As an organization committed to fostering global development, the UNDP understands that trust is a foundational element of economic and social progress. Digital scams directly erode this trust, undermining the very fabric of societies and economies, particularly in developing countries.”
Our Response
Through a series of co-design engagements over a 12-month period, ThinkPlaceX convened a coalition of experts from the public sector, private sector, civil society, and academia—at the global and national levels—to advance this initiative. Coalition partner organisations included Mastercard, the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), the United Nations Officer on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the National University of Singapore, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, National Australia Bank, ANZ Bank, IDCare and the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers.
ThinkPlaceX engaged widely with international stakeholders, including UNDP country office representatives in Africa, South-East Asia, South America and the Pacific, to build an understanding of the impacts of digital scams in those regions. ThinkPlaceX also undertook ethnographic research in Kenya and Cambodia to explore the citizen impact of digital scams in developing contexts.
This research provided inputs ThinkPlaceX worked collaboratively with Coalition stakeholders to develop a toolkit to assist in visualising the ecosystem of digital scams and a convening approach to facilitate multistakeholder workshops to guide participants through the toolkit. The intent of these workshops is to foster cooperation among stakeholders and identify collaboration opportunities where capabilities can be combined to deliver practical and effective responses to digital scam threats
ThinkPlaceX facilitated a multistakeholder co-design workshop in Cambodia where we convened approximately 40 participants from 20 organisations to explore the digital scam problem in Cambodia and map the potential capabilities and intervention opportunities available to stakeholders there.
The Impact
The workshop identified a number of high-impact collaboration opportunities the Cambodia Government, with the support of private industry, could pursue to better protect Cambodian citizens from digital scams. The UNDP and ThinkPlaceX also produced the Anti-Scam Handbook that captured the insights derived throughout the project with practical and outcomes-focused initiatives to reduce the digital scam threat. This handbook is in use by a range of internation stakeholders to inform their own approach to combatting digital scams.
You can find the Anti-Scam Handbook here.
Image: Coalition representatives onstage at the Global Anti-Scam Summit Asia 2024. Image Credit: GASA & The Global Anti Scam Summit Asia 2024
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