e-Payment Fraud

30Oct’24

As e-commerce grows to dominate an ever larger segment of the global economy, criminals will inevitably follow the money.

Payments providers, merchants, and e-commerce platforms are locked in a perpetual arms race with fraudsters, who are constantly developing more sophisticated ways to swindle and deceive.

For example, bot attacks, which deploy automated agents to mimic malicious human behaviors, and click farms, which exploit large numbers of low-paid workers to similar effect, both allow criminals to ramp up their efforts, leaving merchants akin to participants in an eternal game of Whac-a-Mole.

Nevertheless, merchants must use every method at their disposal to fight payment fraud.

Why is payment fraud more common online?

As mentioned above, fraud involving CNP (Card-Not-Present) transactions is far easier than card present transactions. Why is that? The main reason is simply that the cardholder isn’t physically present to verify their identity.

Fraudsters just need to steal the card details, which can be given away in a scam, in order to commit the crime. On top of this, the internet provides a vast amount of personal information – including social media profiles, and information stolen in data breaches – that can be used to impersonate someone.

30Oct’24

Why is payment fraud more common online?

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