MANILA - Fraud is the "most rampant" security issue ride-hailing app Grab has faced, an official said Wednesday as the firm announced new security features.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a "spike in various types of fraud digitally," said Wui Foo, head of Grab's Technology, Integrity Group, Transport, and Patents Office.

"The biggest concept we’ve personally experienced is actually fraud. Fraud is--it’s not like safety, it is not life-threatening but it is the most rampant," he told reporters in a virtual briefing.

"Across all regions, countries especially in Indonesia, we’ve had to deal with very sophisticated fraud rings, we've always had to balance between how to give something to the right people."

The company, which has a less than 1 percent fraud rate, will be making use of QR codes when a transaction is initiated from a web browser starting first quarter next year, Foo said.

The firm is also working on driver and passenger selfie authentication, which has launched in other countries, and is cooperating with the Philippine government in reviewing data privacy, Foo added.

"We actually launched selfies then the Philippine government said we have to do privacy review of requiring selfies...Of course we respect the government's stance and we rolled it back so we can work on the privacy aspect," he said.

Aside from selfie verification, Grab will also launch gestureless authentication for "faster detection and liveliness check" and GrabChat filter, where messages with inappropriate content will not be sent.

The Singapore-based firm is also working on detecting crashes, unusual ride terminations, and driver-partner notification as part of monitoring passenger trips, according to Foo.

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