PH risks losing ₱603B yearly to money mule fraud, report warns

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines could lose up to P603 billion annually, or nearly 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP), to fraud involving money mule accounts, according to a joint whitepaper by trust tech company IDfy Philippines and Filipino credit bureau CIBI Information Inc.

The report, “Mule Hunting: Are We Chasing Ghosts?,” examined Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showing that PESONet and InstaPay processed a combined P24.74 trillion in transaction flows in 2025.

The study also noted that fewer than 2% of cybercrimes are formally reported, allowing mule accounts to remain active and available for repeated fraudulent transactions for months.

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To help Filipinos understand how scammers recruit money mules, move stolen funds, and exploit gaps in fraud detection, IDfy Philippines launched an investigative graphic novel Chaos in Cavite which presents complex financial crimes through visual storytelling. 

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READ: Bank warns of hike in ‘money mule’ cases

“Money mule networks thrive in the shadows because ordinary citizens often don’t realize they are being exploited until it’s too late,” said IDfy Philippines country head Raghu Chandrasekhar in a statement.

“With Chaos in Cavite, we wanted to move past abstract security advisories and present the stark reality of digital crime in a format that resonates,” added Chandrasekhar.

The company said the graphic novel forms part of its broader efforts to strengthen trust in the Philippines’ digital economy by making financial crime risks more understandable to consumers, regulators and industry stakeholders.

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“By depicting how money moves from a single scam to international illicit networks, we hope to empower consumers and give institutions a clearer line of sight into the human vector of fraud,” added Chandrasekhar.

“We found that a graphic novel could go deeper into a human aspect, talk about their stories and explain their anguish and the trauma that they go through when they suffer fraud. That’s the entire genesis of the graphic novel concept,” Chandrasekhar told the Inquirer.

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Chandrasekhar said that the stories are inspired by true events and are based on information that the media publishes.

IDfy called on banks, fintech companies and other financial institutions to strengthen intelligence-sharing and adopt advanced technologies to detect and counter increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes.

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“We will continue to develop new stories, look at what’s happening in the market, look at how AI is spearheading new kinds of scams and try to build on the education front,” Chandrasekhar added. /mr