According to Forter’s Fraud Attack Index, the significant data breaches of 2017 and previous years (Equifax, Verizon, Yahoo, and Uber), wreaked havoc on the private data of millions of individuals, and fed fraudsters with new batches of consumer data readily available for the taking.
As a result, the 2017 Equifax breach contributed to a 53% increase in account takeover (ATO) attempts in Q3 2017. Perhaps the most influential and impacted of all the industries, digital goods continue to be a favourite target of fraudsters, according to the report. Fraud rates increased significantly in 2018 by 167%. The ease by which fraudsters can liquidate these goods continues to make it a high risk target.
Also, return abuse (when people return goods after using them) has increased 119% since the beginning of 2017 and policy abuse (when individuals cheat merchants through inappropriate use of coupons, discount codes, multiple account creation or reward programs) is also on the rise. Thus, coupon abuse in particular surged 217% between Q4 2017 and Q1 2018.
Given expected fraud spikes around Amazon Prime Day in July 2018, it is important that retailers take the appropriate measures to protect themselves and their customers.
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