75 percent of merchants report increases in fraud rates after the pandemic, Cybersource, MRC survey

Ecommerce credit card payments system Cybersource (a Visa solution) and The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) have released the annual Global Fraud Survey.

The survey which identified the key priorities and challenges ecommerce merchants are facing in relation to fraud, compared to pre-pandemic trends.

In comparison to the days before the COVID-19 pandemic, around three-quarters of merchants reported increases in both fraud attempts and fraud rates by revenue. Friendly fraud and card testing have surpassed phishing/pharming and identity theft as the most common attacks, globally, according to the survey findings.

The variety of fraud attacks merchants experience has declined, although the volume of attacks has increased. On a tactical level, merchants are relying more heavily on a handful of widely used tools, including Card Verification Number (CVN) and email verification.

Fraud management costs have increased five-fold, on average, compared to pre-COVID, from an average of 2% of annual ecommerce revenue in 2019 to around 10% in 2021