Online fraud is evolving, increased attacks against food and beverage industry

Other Fraud Attack Index highlights:

• online apparel attacks have increased 47%.

• there’s been a 45% increase in account takeover attacks.

• fraud rings have shot up by 26%, a symptom of the general trend towards increased sophistication seen throughout the online fraud ecosystem

• policy abuse (or compliance abuse) skyrocketed over 2018: an increase of 170%.

The astonishing 170% increase in policy abuse reflects the extent to which online companies are having to deal with the specter of friendly fraud as well as professional fraud. Using social media groups and forums to share tips about how to trick a merchant into giving away more than they mean to, ordinary consumers are increasingly getting in on the policy abuse act.

• Spike in Cross-Industry Fraud: Numerous e-commerce industries experienced an increase in fraud attacks, including:

• Food & Beverage +79%

• Electronics +73%

• Apparel & Accessories +47%

• Jewelry & Luxury +19%

• Land Travel & Hospitality +19%.

The shift in fraud attack methods shows that the online criminal community is continuing to increase in sophistication. Where once the point of transaction was the only point on the website a merchant had to worry about, now fraudsters strike at accounts which they can exploit in numerous ways including stealing gift card or coupon credit, stealing loyalty points and stealing personal information such as physical address or phone number. The icing on the criminal cake is that accounts can also be used to make fraudulent purchases, leveraging the good reputation of the victim. Retailers now need to analyze and protect the entire customer journey.