Rising rates of financial fraud in emerging economies threaten to undermine the promise of digitization and the economic gains it unlocks. We already know that fraud is among the well-documented barriers women face when accessing digital financial tools and services. What’s missing is data on the unique risks women experience once they have already gained access to formal financial services or adopted digital tools—particularly in terms of their exposure and response to digital financial fraud, and their ability to recover from it.

Both CARE and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) have recently collected more data on this issue. In a guest article published on NextBillion, Tanvi Jaluka (Research and Learning Lead for CARE USA’s Women’s Entrepreneurship team) and Lauren Perlik (Associate Program Manager for Innovations for Poverty Action’s Financial Inclusion Program) share research findings that reveal several areas where fraud affects women and men differently, as well as insights on what actually helps women avoid fraud and what actions are needed to deliver effective consumer protection—not just access—across genders.