Minimising exposure to cyber frauds in digital finance: perspectives from technology threat avoidance theory

Leveraging technological advancements related to digitisation for financial transactions is convenient, yet it is not free of challenges. Cyber frauds, particularly related to the infringement of financial data and deceitfulness related to monetary means have become largely prevalent. This study aims to revisit the technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT) by incorporating the elements of attitude and perceived financial loss, taken as essential components. This is done in the context of cyber frauds that befall in the online payment domain. Based on the constructs, an initial model was developed to show the relationships. Regression and correlation analysis were used to validate the model after the constructs went through exploratory factor analysis. Based on the data collected from 118 online payment platform users, the findings exhibit that while the perceived threat and attitude were not found to have a significant impact on avoidance motivation, perceived financial loss depicted contrasting results. This shows that attitudes towards fraud and perceived threats were not capable of motivating online payment users to avoid fraud.