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Suspected digital holiday shopping fraud increases – TransUnion

Suspected digital holiday shopping fraud increases – TransUnion

TransUnion found that 6% of e-commerce transactions reviewed between 24 to 28 November originating from Namibia, were suspected to be fraudulent, according to their latest findings.

TransUnion in a statement said that these findings are based on intelligence from billions of transactions contained in TransUnion’s TruValidate fraud analytic solutions suite.

“For transactions originating in Namibia, the percentage was 23% lower than during the rest of the year but was 54% higher than the same period in 2021,” they added.

Senior Vice President and Head of Global Fraud Solutions at TransUnion, Shai Cohen said fraudulent activity tends to be particularly prevalent in online retail during the holiday shopping season and even though 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.

“Online retailers must ensure consumer security and privacy protections, which is important to consumers, but in a way which ensures a seamless shopping experience that minimizes unnecessary friction,” added Cohen.

TransUnion also revealed in the analysis that the top types of fraudulent e-commerce transactions included promotion abuse, which is users abusing site promotions such as refer-a-friend, free give always, and account takeover, which is someone other than the owner of an account using it without permission, indicating that the account has been maliciously compromised.

General Manager of TransUnion Namibia, Lara Burger said online retailers must equip themselves with the proper tools to detect fraud at the first warning sign, and without inhibiting the consumer journey.

“It is more important than ever that these online retailers implement holistic fraud solutions that can verify customer identity and authenticity at the very beginning of transaction without resulting in false positives that may cost them legitimate transactions,” added Burger.

TransUnion monitors digital fraud attempts reported by businesses in varied industries such as gambling, gaming, financial service, healthcare, insurance, retail, travel, and leisure among others.

Their 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 analytic solution suite.


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.