AI-driven mobile fraud alarms consumers during holiday shopping season
Fraudsters deployed AI-driven scams including deepfake payment approvals, synthetic voice and bot-driven account takeovers targeting mobile shopping apps during the 2025 holiday season. According to Appdome's survey, consumers in the Philippines and United States reported high levels of abandonment of shopping apps due to fraud and security concerns, with significant gaps between expectations that apps could stop AI threats and confidence they actually could.
What happened
Fraudsters deployed AI-driven scams including deepfake payment approvals, AI-generated voice scams and bot-driven account takeovers targeting mobile shopping apps during the holiday season.
According to Appdome's Consumer Expectations of Mobile App Security report, attackers used these sophisticated tools to mimic users, hijack sessions and trigger unauthorized transactions on banking, retail, delivery and travel platforms.
Reported impact
In the Philippines, 74.7% of users reported abandoning apps due to fraud or security concerns, with 43.4% citing identity theft as their top fear and more than a third saying they or someone they knew had fallen victim to social engineering scams.
In the United States, 63.7% of consumers feared synthetic fraud most when shopping on mobile, 44.7% deleted or abandoned apps over identity theft concerns, and 19% stopped using apps due to fraudulent transactions.
Index analysis
While 67.2% of Filipino users believed AI could improve mobile security, 32.8% viewed it as a threat, and 51% of Americans saw AI as a threat to mobile app safety.
A significant trust gap emerged: 89.4% of Americans expected apps to block AI-powered threats, yet only 10.6% felt confident mobile apps could actually do so.
Governance controls
45.9% of Philippine users said responsibility for stopping fraud lay with app developers rather than device makers or carriers. In the United States, 65% said the mobile app maker — not the device, OS, or carrier — was responsible for stopping fraud.
87.7% of American consumers prioritized fraud prevention before it occurred rather than reimbursement after, and 60.9% said privacy was very important, with nearly one in four refusing to use apps without clear privacy safeguards.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.