Fraudulent eCommerce purchase values jump 70 percent over 2019
2020 has been a boom year for eCommerce, with average daily transaction volumes equal to 88 percent of the volume achieved during Black Friday weekend 2019 according to digital trust and safety specialist Sift.
It also finds the average attempted fraudulent purchase value has risen to over $700 from October through November 2020, a 70 percent year-on-year increase compared to the same period in 2019.
Fraudsters have moved away from their traditional 'spray and pray' approach, which involves making dozens or hundreds of lower value transactions with stolen payment information. Instead they are making larger, but fewer, attacks. In particular, cybercriminals have focused on eCommerce merchants who are looking to cash in on the surge of online shopping this season, knowing that their efforts will be more likely to succeed.
"The opportunity for e-commerce merchants this holiday season is greater than ever, and fraudsters have certainly taken advantage by making fraudulent transactions at higher price points," says Jason Tan, CEO of Sift. "Cybercriminals are well aware that merchants are setting higher thresholds for blocking transactions, which is a major flaw of rules-based fraud prevention strategies. These rules-based systems not only fail to catch large amounts of fraud, but block legitimate transactions in the process. Companies need to move towards a digital trust and safety strategy, which accounts for the changing behaviors of fraudsters while ensuring a seamless experience for legitimate users."
Among other findings, there has been a 64 percent increase in eCommerce order volumes over the Black Friday weekend (November 25-27, 2020) compared to the daily average for 2020. The food and beverage industry has also been hit hard, with attempted fraudulent order values exploding on November 29, 2020 -- the average attempted purchase surging to over 475 percent of October and November’s average, as fraudsters looked to hide beneath the cover of restaurants' and delivery services' Black Friday Weekend deals.
The full report can be found on the Sift site.
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