Online shopping scams up by 70%

As retailers continue to take advantage of the speed and convenience of online shopping, global information and insights company TransUnion said safety and security measures should also be of utmost priority so customers can be at ease with their shopping experiences.

TransUnion shared the information with Daily Tribune earlier this week as fraudulent transactions during the holiday period in November increased by 70 percent over last year.

The international insights firm added that global e-commerce fraud further increased during the November 2022 holiday shopping season.

"Fraudulent activity tends to be particularly prevalent in online retail during the holiday shopping season," said Pia Arellano, president, and CEO of TransUnion Philippines.

"Despite the fact that consumers have begun returning in larger numbers to in-person shopping in the post-pandemic era, online retail continues to be the preferred means of holiday shopping for many," Arellano added.

Online retailers, she said, must ensure consumer security and privacy protections, which is important to consumers, but in a way that ensures a seamless shopping experience that minimizes unnecessary friction.

In a TransUnion study, 15 percent of all global e-commerce transactions reviewed between the Thursday before Black Friday (24 November) and Cyber Monday (28 November) were potentially fraudulent.

For transactions originating from the Philippines, four percent of e-commerce transactions during that period were suspected to be fraudulent.

These findings are based on intelligence data from billions of transactions contained in TransUnion's TruValidate™ fraud analytics solution suite.

The analysis determined that the average number of suspected digital fraud attempts on any given day during that holiday period globally was 38 percent lower than in the same period in 2021 and 82 percent higher than during the rest of the year (1 January 2022 to 23 November 2022).

In the Philippines, it was 70 percent higher than in the same period in 2021 and two percent higher than during the rest of 2022.

The study also revealed the share of suspected digital fraud attempts for each day in the holiday shopping period for transactions in the Philippines and globally.

TransUnion added that in the analysis the top types of potentially fraudulent e-commerce transactions during the holiday shopping season globally.

The study said promotion abuse, where a user abuses site promotions such as refer-a-friend and free giveaways, and account takeover, where someone other than the owner uses it without permission, were the leading types of fraud attempts.

"Online retailers must equip themselves with the proper tools to detect fraud at the first warning sign, and without inhibiting the consumer journey," Arellano said.

"It's more important than ever that these online retailers implement holistic fraud solutions that (can) verify customer identity and authenticity at the very beginning of a transaction without resulting in false positives that may cost them legitimate transactions."