Ahead of the Amazon Prime Day 2022 sales, online shoppers have been urged to be on their guard once again against scams and online fraud.
A report from Juniper research has estimated that if current trends persist, the total overall losses to online payment fraud for merchants across the world between 2023 and 2027 will top $343 billion.
With shoppers keener than ever to land a good bargain, many are falling victim to a range of attacks, ranging from money transfer scams, purchasing fake or non-existent goods, or simply having their card details swiped by malicious websites.
Online fraud rise
Juniper's report found physical goods purchases are set to be the largest single source of losses, set to make up nearly half (49%) of all online payment fraud losses globally over the next five years, a 110% growth from the current figure.
The firm found that poor address verification processes in developing markets are also becoming a major fraud risk, with fraudsters specifically targeting physical goods due to their resell potential.
The report adds that the predicted losses are the equivalent of over 350% of Apple’s reported net income in the 2021 fiscal year; showing the massive extent of these losses.
“Fundamentally, no two online transactions are the same, so the way transactions are secured cannot follow a one-size-fits-all solution," noted report author Nick Maynard. "Payment fraud detection and prevention vendors must build a multitude of verification capabilities, and intelligently orchestrate different solutions depending on circumstances, in order to correctly protect both merchants and users.”
Merchants and resellers are being urged to ensure their anti-fraud protection systems are as robust as possible, and provide a combination of verification tools, including multiple sources of address verification and multi-factor authentication, to make sure their customers stay safe.
The report comes shortly after security researchers from Check Point found the volume of Amazon-related phishing emails has spiked by 37% month-on-month, alongside 1,900 new domains linked in some regard to the ecommerce giant, at least 9.5% of which have been deemed “risky”.
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