By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Radial Annual Holiday Fraud Index identifies items most likely to suffer CNP fraud attacks.
As we head into the busy holiday retail shopping season, Radial has published its Annual Holiday Fraud Index to help retailers combat fraud and convert sales. With more than two billions records already stolen in 2016, the threat of hacks, leaks and data breaches continues to grow. The index identifies six trends that retailers should be aware of to help prevent such attacks.
“We’re heading into our second holiday season with more retailers EMV ready, which means CNP fraud becomes a lot more attractive to organized and tech savvy criminals,” explained Stefan Weitz, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Radial. “Combine that with the increased prevalence of data breaches and retailers are faced with the daunting challenge of approving as many orders as possible, while minimizing fraud.”
The report found:
- Card-not-present fraud comprises the largest share of fraudulent activity, with attack rates increasing in nearly every market segment. In fact, since the EMV launch there has been an average 30 percent increase in online fraud attacks, according to Radial.
- Some cross-border countries represent greater risk, while others offer higher sales.
- Cross-border attack rates drop significantly on Cyber Monday. In fact, they dropped over 33 percent on Cyber Monday when compared to the rest of the holiday season.
- Digital gift card fraud spikes after December 25. While digital gift card fraud attacks are 10 times more likely during the holidays than other delivery methods, they jump to almost 25 times more likely the week right after Christmas. They actually hit an all-time seasonal low on Christmas Day.
- Digital gift card attack rates soar for some billing and shipping domains and payment tenders during the holidays, including Discover and Outlook.com seeing attack rates about 200 percent higher than their nearest competitors.
- IP locations and credit card bank identification number (BIN) carry different risk factors for digital gift card purchases.
“Bottom line for most retailers if you are managing fraud yourself, the Grinch will be stealing your holiday,” asserted Weitz.
