Staff Reporter
Around 6% of electronic commerce (e-commerce) transactions originating from Namibia during the start of the festive season shopping period are suspected to be fraudulent. This represents a staggering 54% increase when compared to the same time last year.
These figures are according to the credit reporting agency, TransUnion, that yesterday released new findings around global e-commerce fraud that occurred during the start of the 2022 holiday shopping season. The analysis found 15% of all global e-commerce transactions reviewed between 24 to 28 November were potentially fraudulent.
The per cent of suspected digital fraud attempts are those that TransUnion’s TruValidate customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators compared to all transactions it assessed for fraud.
These findings are based on intelligence from billions of transactions contained in TransUnion’s TruValidate fraud analytics solution suite. The analysis also determined that the average number of suspected digital fraud attempts on any given day during the specific holiday period globally was 82% higher than during the rest of the year (1 January 2022 to 23 November 2022).
For transactions originating in Namibia, the percentage was 23% lower than during the rest of the year but was 54% higher than in the same period in 2021.
“Fraudulent activity tends to be particularly prevalent in online retail during the holiday shopping season,” said Shai Cohen, senior vice president and head of global fraud solutions at TransUnion.
“Despite the fact that consumers have begun returning in larger numbers to in-person shopping in the post-pandemic era, online retail continues to be the preferred means of holiday shopping for many. It’s important that online retailers ensure consumer security and privacy protections, which is important to consumers – but in a way, which ensures a seamless shopping experience that minimises unnecessary friction.”
Top e-commerce fraud types
TransUnion also revealed in the analysis the top types of fraudulent e-commerce transactions globally. This year, promotion abuse (user abuses site promotions such as refer-a-friend, free giveaways, etc.) and account takeover (someone other than the owner of an account uses it without permission, indicating the account has been maliciously compromised) were the top types of digital fraud in retail.
“Online retailers must equip themselves with the proper tools to detect fraud at the first warning sign, and without inhibiting the consumer journey,” said Lara Burger, general manager of TransUnion Namibia.
“It’s more important than ever that these online retailers implement holistic fraud solutions that are able to verify customer identity and authenticity at the very beginning of a transaction without resulting in false positives that may cost them legitimate transactions.”
TransUnion monitors digital fraud attempts reported by businesses in varied industries such as gambling, gaming, financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail as well as travel and leisure, among others.
The conclusions are based on intelligence from billions of transactions and more than 40 000 websites and apps contained in TransUnion’s flagship identity insights, digital insights, omnichannel authentication and fraud analytics solution suite called TruValidate.