Cross-border scams test Singapore-Thailand cyber defences

Real-time payments are accelerating fund movements as banks confront synthetic identities and fraud that increasingly emerges after onboarding.

Singapore and Thailand’s deeper cooperation against cross-border scams could help financial institutions respond faster, but increasingly sophisticated fraud is putting pressure on traditional post-incident coordination.

Penny Chai, Vice President for APAC at Sumsub, said fraud operations across Asia-Pacific are becoming more industrialised, with artificial intelligence enabling attacks designed to evade detection. She said real-time payment links such as PayNow and PromptPay can move funds across borders within seconds, including potentially illicit transactions.

Sumsub has recorded a 142% surge in AI-manufactured synthetic accounts, according to Chai.

“The agreement is a start of being able to put together a framework where two jurisdictions are able to work together in real time,” she said.

Greater payment connectivity also creates challenges after customers pass initial identity checks. Chai said fraudsters are increasingly using synthetic identities that can clear know-your-customer processes, making onboarding checks insufficient on their own.

More than 76% of fraud occurs after onboarding, she said, highlighting the need to monitor customer behaviour throughout the relationship.

“A green check mark doesn't mean a good actor at a transaction,” Chai said.

Cross-border intelligence sharing, however, must operate within privacy and data restrictions. Chai said banks can share suspicious behavioural signals without transferring personally identifiable information between jurisdictions.

Names, account numbers and documents can remain within domestic boundaries, whilst threat information can be converted into cryptographic hashes and behavioural telemetry. This would allow institutions in another jurisdiction to identify similar patterns without receiving the underlying personal data.

For example, a fraud pattern identified by a Thai bank could be flagged to a Singapore institution within seconds, Chai said.

The challenge for banks is therefore shifting fraud controls from static identity verification towards continuous monitoring that can detect suspicious behaviour as payments move between increasingly connected markets.