Black Friday risks being overshadowed by fraudsters
Black Friday is fast approaching and retailers are gearing up for what is predicted to be the first ever £1 billion shopping day in the UK. Last year Black Friday saw 180,000,000 online visits, with visitors on Cyber Monday logging a further 161,000,000 visits a couple of days later and these figures are expected to rise again this year.
On the surface, the growing phenomenon is a merchant’s dream with more sales and more revenue, but it also presents an opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of the spike in online visitors and unpredictable spending patterns, making it harder for merchants to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions.
Merchants face huge difficulties when it comes to spotting genuine fraud among so many transactions, which could damage profits significantly. It is, therefore, paramount that merchants are able to identify harmful behaviours, users and devices to prevent fraudulent transactions, as well as allowing genuine transactions to go through in order to reap the rewards that Black Friday can bring.
At Risk Ident, we want to offer our four top tips to help ecommerce merchants stay secure online this holiday season:
1. Use device fingerprinting for identification
Fraudsters want the biggest rewards in the shortest space of time. They will often use the same device for multiple fraudulent transactions. Identifying the source, rather than the user, will help prevent a Christmas payday for these people.
2. Reduce false positives
Analyse all sources of customer data in combination with each other to give you a full picture of transaction activity so you can confidently accept genuine transactions and block fraudulent ones. Linking all the data helps you avoid rejecting and deterring genuine customers, while identifying and stopping the ‘bad’ transaction attempts.
3. Identify account takeovers
Normal user account activity disappears on Black Friday, as consumers’ spending patterns change vastly from their normal behaviours. Use machine learning technologies to help you identify a combination of suspicious factors that indicate the account is being used by an unauthorised person – don’t depend on rules.
4. Review high-risk transactions
Artificial intelligence is a vital part of the fight against fraud to help handle the vast quantity of transactions going through your system on Black Friday. But don’t depend entirely on technology to see you through – empowered, knowledgeable fraud managers working with systems that help flag suspicious activity provide the best defence against fraud.
