As e-commerce stakeholders continue to endure the holiday season, there has already been some analysis of the recent Thanksgiving weekend. According to credit bureau TransUnion, fraud on e-commerce transactions was 25 percent higher than the rest of the year. Of all online transactions that took place between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in the U.S., TransUnion estimated, nearly 20 percent were suspected to be fraudulent.
The Chicago-based data aggregator said the top indicators of a potentially fraudulent transaction are the number of accounts accessed by a particular device or existing evidence of a fraudulent transaction having taken place on a device or account.
“The holiday shopping season is a popular time for bad actors to engage in fraudulent activity, particularly in the e-commerce and retail industry,” said Shai Cohen, senior vice president of global fraud solutions at TransUnion. “Online shopping is the new norm for the majority of consumers and that trend has been further accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers want to shop with online retailers that not only provide a seamless user experience, but also take consumer security and privacy seriously. It is imperative that those businesses equip themselves with the proper tools to better assess the overall risk of a potential fraudulent transaction without inhibiting the consumer journey. ”
Download an infographic detailing the analysis here.
