Fraud increasing at “alarming” rate this holiday season

Internet Retailing

27th Nov 2017

New benchmark data from ACI Worldwide suggests merchants can expect a 30 percent increase in omnichannel fraud attempts compared with the same period last year.

The data is based on hundreds of millions of transactions from leading merchants and shows that identity theft via data breach, account takeover including phishing attacks and friendly fraud, such as chargebacks, continue to be the biggest challenges to consumers and merchants.

“Fraud is increasing at an alarming rate—due to a potent combination of data compromises, identity theft, account takeover and friendly fraud,” said Erika Dietrich, global director of payments risk at ACI Worldwide.

ACI’s data show the volume of purchases is increasing at a faster rate than the overall value of purchases compared with the same period last year, due to a massive trend towards price compression, particularly for online shopping.

At the same time, the average ticket value of attempted fraud is expected to increase from $210 to $215, as fraudsters target pricier items, including electronics and home goods like vacuums and blenders.

“Fraudsters continue to target electronics and home goods—and show preference for immediate purchases like buy online, pick-up in store and next-day delivery. It is imperative that both consumers and merchants protect themselves during the holiday shopping season given this new landscape of persistent and systemic fraudulent activity,” Dietrich said.