Fake users plague business websites

We've already seen Amazon taking action to prevent fake reviews, but a new survey reveals that 43 percent of websites admit to allowing fake users in order to avoid friction during account registration.

The study conducted by identity solutions company TeleSign in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute finds that 82 percent of companies struggle with fake users.

It seems that an easy life is valued over preventing fakes. User convenience (58 percent), cost efficiency (52 percent), and ease of use (42 percent) were noted as the most important factors to an organization's authentication strategy, with security coming a distant fourth at just 21 percent.

Yet fake users have a significant impact according to the findings. In the past year, fake users have victimized 21 percent of legitimate users and as a consequence organizations have lost an average of nine percent of their legitimate user base. Large companies are spending up to $14M to clean up the fallout from fake user incidents, with a vast majority (60 percent) of those costs being spent on repairing brand damage and reputational costs.

"Fake accounts are notorious vehicles for cyber criminals to commit abuses such as spam, identity theft, and other online fraud. Battling these types of problems has brought a number of well-known brands to their knees and is continuing to cost businesses significant time, money and reputational capital," says Steve Jillings, CEO of TeleSign. "Despite today’s aggressive threat landscape, 64 percent of businesses still admit to prioritizing convenience over security which means fake users are being allowed in just as readily as you or me. TeleSign’s advances in frictionless account verification technology mean that those trades-offs are a thing of the past".

You can see more details on the survey's findings in infographic format below.

Image Credit: Elwynn/Shutterstock