With deepfakes surging across the Philippines and Indonesia, a global identity verification firm sees Southeast Asia’s fraud crisis as a major growth opportunity.
Identity verification company Sumsub is expanding across Southeast Asia through a series of reseller partnerships, as the region grapples with some of the sharpest rises in digital fraud and AI-generated deception recorded anywhere in the world.
The company has signed agreements with three regional partners: Nexus Technologies, a Manila-based IT reseller and systems integrator; PT Secure Pasifik Teknologi, an Indonesian cybersecurity consultancy; and Spectrum Edge, a cybersecurity distributor operating in Malaysia. The partnerships will give businesses in all three markets access to Sumsub’s identity verification and compliance tools, which are used to screen customers, detect fraudulent documents, and meet know-your-customer and anti-money laundering regulations.
The timing reflects an urgent and deteriorating fraud environment across the region. According to Sumsub’s own data, the Philippines recorded the highest growth in deepfake incidents across the Asia-Pacific region — a 4,500 percent increase between 2022 and 2023. Indonesia saw a 1,550 percent year-on-year rise in deepfakes, a surge that coincided with the country’s presidential election. In Malaysia, fraud rates in the fintech sector climbed 108 percent. Governments across the three markets have responded by tightening regulatory requirements around customer identity checks and financial crime compliance.
“With rising fraud and the growing accessibility of AI tools, the demand for our verification and compliance solutions has never been higher,” said Penny Chai, Sumsub’s Vice President of Business Development for Asia, who is based in Singapore.
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Sumsub established its first Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore in July 2023, positioning the city-state as a regional hub given its concentration of fintech and digital asset businesses. The company has since added clients, including dtcpay, a Singapore-based payment services provider, and formed partnerships with blockchain technology firm ChainUp and South Korean travel rule compliance provider CODE.
To mark the new partnerships, Sumsub has launched a regional roadshow — titled “Comply to Fortify” — spanning major cities across the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where it will demonstrate its fraud prevention tools to prospective clients.
