Ecommerce sales accelerated during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Signifyd’s data showed, and fraud in various forms accelerated with it. Signifyd’s State of Fraud Report 2021 found:

• a 146% increase in automated fraud attacks in 2020;
• a doubling of consumer abuse — including false claims that an order never arrived — in the first half of 2021;
• a 350% increase in fraud pressure — orders deemed to be fraudulent — by mid-2021.

• account takeover
• curbside and BOPIS schemes
• false item not received claims
• return fraud
• automated card testing
• synthetic identities
• mule fraud
• promotion abuse
• unauthorized reselling.

The report notes that successful fraud and risk teams are changing their very nature in order to keep up with the rapidly evolving fraud challenges they face. The emphasis has moved away from loss prevention to a focus on optimizing the enterprise’s business potential.

The transformation of online fraud and the strategies to combat it take on a new urgency as online sales make up a rapidly growing segment of overall retail revenue.