2020 holiday weekend e-commerce fraud 6.59% up over 2019
GLOBAL information and insights company TransUnion research has found that suspected 2020 holiday weekend e-commerce fraud in South Africa rose by 6.59 percent compared with the same period in 2019.
TransUnion has released new findings around online retail trends during the start of the 2020 global holiday shopping season.
The findings were based on the online retail transactions TransUnion analysed for its e-commerce customers between November 26 and 30.
Heading into the holiday shopping season, the global TransUnion Financial Hardship Study conducted between November 1 and 3 found that 41 percent of 1 100 South African consumers said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to Covid-19, a 64 percent increase from the same survey the week of April 13.
Director of product at TransUnion Africa Keith Wardell said the research found that with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the move from offline to online transactions, detecting digital fraud attempts had become paramount for e-commerce providers.
“To avoid cart abandonment with all of these new sales opportunities, it is equally if not more important to ensure consumers are able to make friction-right digital transactions,” said Wardell. The research also found that suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions in South Africa during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2018 to last year were 7.4 percent from November 26-30, 2020 and 18.55 percent so far in 2020, 6.94 percent from November 28 to December 2, 2019, and 5.32 percent in all of 2019.
It was also 3.49 percent from November 22 to 26, 2018 and 8.69 percent in all of 2018.
The days with the highest percent of suspected fraudulent transactions coming from South Africa during the start of the this year’s holiday shopping season were Sunday, November 29, at 11.08 percent; Cyber Monday, November 30 at 9.42 percent; Saturday, November 28 at 6.94 percent, Thursday, November 26 at 6.63 percent and Black Friday, November 27 at 4.43 percent.
South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) chief executive Nischal Mewalall said unfortunately it was too early for them to make observations regarding this year’s online shopping fraud trends, however, historic trends showed that November and December showed an increase in the number of online fraud and credit card fraud incidents.
“For example, Card Not Present (CNP) fraud was a major contributor to fraud during 2019 and contributed to 57 percent of fraud reported, which is also commensurate with increases in spend,” said Mewalall.
Sabric added that it was not unusual to see these spikes in online fraud as they are directly linked to increases in digital transactions related to peak shopping periods, as with the festive season.
Absa Retail and Business Bank head of Fraud Risk Ulrich Janse van Rensburg said while they had seen an increase during the Black November (extended Black Friday), they had not seen such high increases in the amount of fraudulent incidents.
“We warn customers never to share their OTP unless they are transacting. They should also never approve transactions that they did not do. If consumers stick to this they will be safe online. All banks have real-time notifications,” said Van Rensburg.