Digital fraudsters are nothing if not opportunistic, and the current pandemic is an excellent example. Many reports from consultants and researchers talk of increasing scams and tricks, and “content fraud” is on the rise. Jeff Sakasegawa, a trust and safety architect at fraud prevention firm Sift, talks about the problem and his findings.
COVID-19 has quickly reshaped web traffic and app usage patterns; for example, skyrocketing traffic to food delivery services. The rapid consumer behavior shift has morphed attack patterns, expanded the threat environment and added pressure against many site operators unaccustomed to so much fraudster attention.
If nothing else, bad actors perpetrating ecommerce transaction fraud are clever opportunists, and a crisis like the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is proving a perfect opportunity for them to prey upon unsuspecting sellers and consumers, experts agree. The rise of contactless deliveries and working from home are among the entry points.
The U.S. government is cracking down on the sale of counterfeit ecommerce items and pirated goods, warning of stricter rules and penalties for participants in a rogue economy that was valued at $509 billion in 2016. A DHS report announcing the crackdown came in response to an April 2019 memorandum from President Trump.
So-called Grinch bots buy up popular toys in bulk at Christmas and resell them at a profit. They affected as much as 97% of traffic to ecommerce sites in the week ending Cyber Monday, Radware claimed. Now Congress is considering legislation for the third time to combat the threat. Will a new law or technology solve the problem?
Marketing fraud ─ including skewed analytics, ad fraud, affiliate fraud and lead fraud ─ is a growing problem for online businesses in every industry, and it’s more pronounced over the busy holiday shopping season. Juniper Research estimates that in 2019, advertisers around the world will lose $42 billion of ad spend to fraud.
Visa is warning ecommerce merchants about a new JavaScript skimmer targeting customer data entered at the point-of-sale (POS) in payment forms on sellers’ websites. Pipka is able to remove itself from the HTML code after it is successfully executed, thereby avoiding detection. Visa is giving merchants a list of mitigation measures.
The holiday shopping season is practically upon us, which means savvy consumers are getting ready for the best sales of the year. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones preparing to take advantage of the season. Learn about the serious threats posed by bad actors like Magecart groups, and what steps you can take now to be protected.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is opting for an 18-month phased implementation of the Secure Customer Authentication rules for ecommerce transactions, instead of an action date of Sept. 14. Eric Christensen of Digital River provides some context in this latest MCM CommerceChat podcast.
Online customers will abandon roughly seven out of ten transactions they initiate. Ecommerce merchants are under tremendous pressure to reduce friction, speed up processes and optimize the customer experience to try and prevent fraud, keep customers engaged and prevent cart abandonment.