Fraud-Fighting Organizations Build Trust in Netherlands’ Digital Transformation

The Netherlands may not always be top of mind when considering digital connectedness or online enforcement, but PYMNTS’ research has detailed the country’s above-average digital engagement — with global fraud-fighting likely part of the equation.

The steadily increasing adoption of digital tools and online conveniences into daily life is changing consumer behavior worldwide. PYMNTS’ December ConnectedEconomy Index, “How the World Does Digital,” analyses the changing state of this evolution on a global scale. This comprehensive survey gathered benchmark data from more than 30,000 consumers across 11 countries. Overall, the ConnectedEconomy studies seek a more layered understanding of consumers’ integration of online tools and digital activities into their daily lives and how it may change their behavior.

This worldwide edition of the index concentrated on activities taking place during 2022’s third quarter, find that across nearly all countries tracked, overall digital engagement is steadily increasing, with 73% of consumers participating in at least one online activity weekly in 30 days prior to being surveyed.

In terms of connectivity, the Netherlands’ digital participation for daily, weekly and monthly activities scores on the higher end of the countries tracked by the index. While some countries’ engagement has been spurred by digital wallet use, others have taken a FinTech-led approach or been engaged in broader policy. The Netherlands stands out in its pointed efforts in tackling fraud stemming from malware.

The Netherlands relatively high connectivity compared to other EU countries opened the door to the country’s embrace of digital payments. With the widespread success of the country’s national digital payment system, iDeal, first introduced in 2005,  consumers in the Netherlands use the least cash out of eurozone countries. Protecting the country’s consumers from the new frontier of digital fraudsters as the Netherlands continues to increase its connectivity may have partially led to their digital transformation.

Last October, Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm ThreatFabric announced their findings that criminals can use Android banking trojans to exploit buy now, pay later (BNPL) app vulnerabilities and make fraudulent purchases. Adding credence to arguments that BNPL and related FinTechs need to be regulated was that when ThreatFabric’s team discovered compromised user credentials, it immediately alerted the affected BNPL providers. However, those companies allegedly didn’t reply for months.

Then in January, global ransomware group Hive was dismantled by Dutch authorities, in collaboration with those from America and Germany. By infiltrating the ransomware group’s network in July 2022, they captured the fraudster’s decryption keys and offered them to victims, scuttling ransom demands totaling $130 million.

Each country the index follows is carving its own place in the ConnectedEconomy. In the Netherlands, the path towards digital transformation is not only invested in its consumers’ connectivity but also in safeguarding the world from cybercrime. Sometimes, not all heroes wear capes.