E-Commerce Fraud: 5 Key Trends To Track

by PYMNTS.com Staff

Fraud is nothing new for e-Commerce businesses, as most likely have a baseline level of losses caused by stolen credit cards, return fraud and other tactics. But with the online fraud environment changing rapidly, those losses are going to escalate unless companies adjust their fraud-prevention tactics.

A new white paper by ThreatMetrix outlines five troubling trends in e-commerce fraud, and it offers some guidance on how businesses can mitigate the risk they present. Among them, one describes how eCommerce now is the new “low-hanging fruit” for online fraud, while another describes how account takeover and identity theft are on the rise.

Taken individually, each emerging trend may seem manageable. But when putting them all together, they paint an increasingly threatening picture for businesses that sell goods and services through online websites, ThreatMetrix says.

“As financial institutions put layered defenses in place, e-commerce sites remain relatively unguarded in comparison,” the company notes in the white paper. “Recent months have seen malware starting to target e-commerce sites.”

Cybercriminals are setting their sights on online commerce Web applications to take over accounts and commit fraud. Business customers are increasing their presence online and using a wide array of devices to conduct business, and cybercriminals are taking advantage of these patterns.

Hackers and fraudsters are applying their expertise in compromising banking and financial institution Web applications to online commerce and online customers. Through its white paper, ThreatMetrix helps businesses to understand the latest trends in online commerce cybercrime, the tools and techniques cybercriminals are using against online vendors to commit fraud, the latest strains of malware that may already be targeting companies’ Web stores and customers, and how large financial institutions are tackling online fraud and what online vendors can learn from them.

To learn more and what the other key trends in online fraud are, read ThreatMetrix’s latest white paper, “Five Trends To Track In E-Commerce Fraud” in full here.