Digital finance is expanding economic access but also enabling more cyber fraud as adoption increases. According to the 2025 Global State of Scams Report by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), 57 percent of adults worldwide reported encountering a scam in the last year. The scale is staggering: a recent Mastercard global survey notes that losses from cyberattacks reached $9.5 trillion last year, effectively making cybercrime the third-largest economy in the world. This growing threat puts low-income women and women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), at even greater risk of scams that not only cause financial loss but also a breach of trust, driving them back to cash-based informality.

Why cybersecurity matters for women

Women’s participation in the digital economy is rising, but a persistent “security divide” that leaves them facing higher rates of digital fraud weakens this progress.

Key patterns include:

• Targeted attacks: Women are 26 percent more likely to be approached by financial scammers.
• Awareness gaps: Globally, 52 percent of consumers targeted by fraud in 2025 remained unaware of the attempts until the damage was done.
• Security fears as a barrier: In our recent field studies, 62 percent of women who avoid digital financial services cite “security fears” and “fear of fraud” as their primary reasons for non-adoption.
• Digital access gaps: Globally, 244 million fewer women than men are online, limiting exposure to secure digital practices.
• AI-driven risks: Deepfakes, impersonation scams, and malicious apps unduly affect women entrepreneurs and gig workers.

These patterns point to broader structural challenges that make women disproportionately susceptible to cyber fraud and crime:

• Limited and shared device access: Women don’t often fully own or control access to their devices, leading to a higher chance of exposure to credential leaks.
• Gender-based cyber violence: Women are more likely targets of digital abuse and technology-facilitated violence on online platforms.
• Lower digital and financial literacy: Women are more vulnerable to being deceived or manipulated into divulging personal or confidential information by fraudsters.
• Mobility and identity restrictions: Many women lack access to information and resources, formal identification, and support networks, which contribute to their vulnerability.
• Cultural barriers and stigma: Fear of reprisal or societal judgement for falling victim to a scam can lead to underreporting incidents.

Cyber fraud’s impact on financial inclusion

Cyber fraud creates a vicious cycle of financial and psychological shocks, pushing women back to cash-based systems, eroding trust in digital platforms, and leading to long-term digital avoidance.

• Financial shock → wipes out essential funds.
• Psychological shock → fear and distrust.
• Behavioral response → retreat to cash.
• Market response → stricter onboarding, reduced credit.

The retreat to cash perpetuates the cycle, reinforcing women’s vulnerabilities and compounding constraints they already face, including:

• Low buffer: Women in low-income households often hold smaller balances and have less access to emergency funds. Their financial buffer to withstand a setback is much lower.
• Reduced visibility: When women withdraw from formal financial channels because of a scam, they lose the digital footprint that enables access to credit, undermining financial inclusion gains.
• Societal perception and pressure: Women’s digital mistakes can attract severe social judgement, leading families to restrict their access to phones or digital finance, effectively cutting off digital financial entry points.
• Loss of economic agency: When distrust pushes buyers or suppliers toward cash, women microbusiness owners often follow, reducing their digital revenue streams and limiting their economic agency.

Our takeaways from West Africa

We recently conducted field research with our commercial banking partner in West Africa, which highlight the severity of cyber threats for women-led MSMEs:

• The “hidden” fraud tax: Among women already using digital financial services, 18 percent directly experienced fraud or scams. For those using mobile money platforms, fraud was cited as a challenge by all respondents who reported platform difficulties.
• Agent misconduct: In one instance, a woman entrepreneur reported that a mobile money agent, a trusted community figure, collected her cash deposit but never transferred it to her bank account, illustrating how “analog” fraud still haunts digital entry points.
• The cost of mistrust: The study found that 10 percent of women who avoid formal banking do so specifically because of a “fear of fraud or scams”. One respondent noted she prefers keeping money in a “box at home” because she doesn’t trust that her money won’t “disappear” from a digital account.

The role of digital literacy and awareness

Equipping women with the knowledge and resources to be vigilant against fraud and build digital resilience is critical. Many low-income women, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, use smartphones and financial apps without formal training in digital safety. The result is a widening “trust gap,” where women gain access to digital systems but remain unsure how to protect themselves.

Digital literacy training delivered via mobile platforms or community groups through WhatsApp, for example, can close this gap. Gamified approaches can make learning about online safety relatable and memorable and is an effective alternative to traditional financial education, which doesn’t always reach or resonate with rural women who often have lower levels of digital and financial literacy. For example, Accion’s Ovante program can be accessed by smartphone and enables women entrepreneurs to strengthen their digital, financial, and business capabilities through tailored learning modules that can be completed at their convenience.

Incorporating “just-in-time” nudges, such as SMS or WhatsApp messages or in-app prompts, that explain specific steps in the user journey can also create awareness and build confidence in digital interactions. It’s important for financial service providers to identify teachable moments along the journey and educate users while delivering the service. When women are confident in their digital knowledge and that their complaints will be addressed sensitively and their privacy respected, they are more likely to report incidents early, saving themselves and others from deeper losses.  Establishing confidential, women-friendly recovery and reporting mechanisms such as dedicated helplines and in-app or WhatsApp-based anonymous reporting helps strengthen digital financial literacy and awareness.

Recommended safeguards and solutions

Protecting women in the digital economy requires building security into the design of financial products and educational initiatives. Solutions must be practical, accessible, and address the specific realities women face. For example:

• Financial service providers can tailor their product and user experience to women, ensuring customers’ digital capacities are considered and adding simple safety checks in the process and leveraging field agents to provide guidance as needed. Lenders can mask credit records, provide merchant continuity support, and deploy multi-factor authentication.
• Regulators and policymakers can mandate sex-disaggregated reporting, define minimum standards for fraud response, determine measures to implement and evaluate cybersecurity safeguards, and support low-cost aid for fraud victims.
• Donors and NGOs can implement or support training programs and community-led reporting mechanisms.

Community-based reporting through trusted structures like women’s self-help groups and cooperatives is particularly important for building early warning systems that detect fraud and enable quicker responses. Fraud can push women entrepreneurs back to cash and informal financial systems, but practical measures can help prevent this. For Accion and our partners, the immediate opportunity is to pilot low-cost, scalable interventions, from tailored reporting mechanisms and agent support to provisional relief funds and coordinated response protocols. Collaboration with regulators and policymakers is also critical. Protecting women from fraud and exploitation requires robust policy frameworks, inclusive technology design, and grassroots partnerships. By embedding trust and security into digital ecosystems, we can sustain and strengthen women’s digital financial inclusion.