Perceived Level of Fraud Risks in Using GCash: Influence of Profile Variables and Group Differences

The rapid growth of mobile wallets in the Philippines has transformed how Filipinos manage financial transactions, especially in areas with limited access to traditional banking services, with GCash widely used in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya becoming an essential tool for daily payments among students, employees, and small business owners; however, increasing cases of fraud, phishing, and unauthorized access have raised concerns about user safety, prompting this study to examine the perceived fraud risk among active GCash users in Solano, focusing on demographic and usage differences and the factors influencing these perceptions using a quantitative, non-experimental design anchored on the UTAUT and Fraud Triangle Theory, with data gathered from 400 users and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics including regression analysis; findings revealed that users generally perceive a high level of fraud risk, particularly in bill payments and merchant transactions, with minimal differences across most groups except age in load transactions, while age and duration of use emerged as key predictors of perceived risk as expressed in the model Ŷ = 2.868 + 0.070(Sex) − 0.017(Age) + 0.101(Duration of Use) + 0.068(Frequency of Use), which explained 4.9% of the variance, highlighting the need for targeted fraud awareness campaigns, stronger security measures, and improved digital financial literacy to promote safer mobile wallet use.