The Current State of Social Commerce Fraud in Malaysia and the Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

Previous research has acknowledged the widespread adoption of social networking (SNS) platforms for online shopping among social media users, known as social commerce. While the positive effects of shopping on social network platforms have received much attention in the literature, the negative outcomes of this type of commerce remain under-explored. Notably, the prevalence of cybercrime, specifically related to online purchasing fraud, has increased rapidly. To address this gap, this paper explores the online purchasing fraud cases related to shopping on the social network platforms, the demographic characteristics of the victims and the financial impact of the fraud to the victims. In addition, this paper also explores the strategies to mitigate the fraud cases. The data was gathered from social network users via an online survey. The findings show that almost seventy percent of the respondents were currently using social network platforms to shop, with Facebook being the most popular platform. For those who use social commerce, as many as twenty-four percent (24%) admitted to having been victims of purchasing fraud. The overwhelming majority of the victims were highly-educated middle-income earning married women, aged between 26-35. In terms of financial impact, the majority of the victims had lost nearly RM400. Few mitigation strategies were identified, including word of mouth, background check of sellers, reliable and transparent transaction process, and avoidance.