Online fraud during holiday shopping period down in 2017

Online fraud during the holiday shopping period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday fell by 33 percent, and for 2017 has decreased by 17 percent compared to last year, after growing steadily from 2014 to 2016, according to research revealed Tuesday by Jumio.

Online businesses are increasingly combatting fraud with a combination of ID and identity verification, the company says, often through facial recognition with a selfie or video, which deters fraud attempts.

“While 2017 witnessed the first decline in fraud in four years, no organization should become complacent. Instead, they should continue investing in ID and identity verification solutions to deter fraud and better establish identity, without scaring off good customers,” said Reinhard Hochrieser, director of product management at Jumio. “Growing tactics like facial scanning and eyeball tracking make it incredibly difficult for fraudsters to mimic someone they’re not. And if a business puts up enough hurdles, fraudsters move on to easier online targets.”

Fraud using U.S. IDs during the holiday period dropped by 29 percent this year from 2016, after growing by 182 percent during the same periods from 2014 to 2016. Fraud using European IDs is 8.6 percent higher than using U.S. IDs this year, while fraud in financial services is 36.6 more common in the EU than in the U.S., according to the research. Fraud declined for sharing economy companies by 17.7 percent in the U.S. in 2017, and by 41.8 percent for those in the EU.

In other holiday news, research by CLEAR suggests biometrics could also ease burdens associated with holiday travel.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  Jumio