Online merchants hit by double whammy of fraud as cost-of-living bites

Online businesses are being hit by a damaging double-whammy of fraud as the cost-of-living crisis bites. 

A survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) at online merchants across 10 countries, commissioned by Ravelin, has found that fraud is on the increase across the board in areas including: Online payment fraud (54%), account takeover (50%), returns and refunds abuse (52%) and promotions abuse (52%).

The study shows fraud remains a significant source of profit erosion for businesses trading online. Payments fraud remains the number one business risk for respondents, followed by friendly fraud, account takeover and policy abuse.

As a result, finance leaders overwhelmingly expect their fraud teams to grow over the coming months – with a third of respondents agreeing their teams could grow by 20% or more. 

The CFOs and CROs surveyed say the rise of the criminal customer and of professional organised fraudsters has increased quite dramatically over the last 12 months. Fifty-seven percent of CFOs polled agreed they are seeing increased evidence of sophisticated ‘Fraud-as-a-Service’. These schemes involve organised groups buying items using stolen card details and reselling them to customers who are often unaware of their involvement in criminal activity.