Even as economists predict a 57% chance of recession in the U.S. soon, people are loosening their purse strings and ramping up for record-breaking holiday spending. Recent retail surveys by Deloitte highlighted consumers’ optimism – a welcome change, considering the hardships of the past few years – and their plan to increase yuletide spending by 8% compared to 2023.
More purchases equal more profits, but this growth also brings a steep rise in online fraud. If you’re an e-retailer hoping for pre-pandemic sales, you need to be prepared with equally robust fraud prevention, especially during peak periods. In this blog, we’ll discuss the most common types of e-commerce fraud, and how EVS can help you navigate this high-demand season with confidence. You’ll learn how our fraud prevention solutions—including AssureID, AssurePay, and AssureCard—provide a multi-layered defense that can help you maintain security without sacrificing speed, ensuring a seamless and secure customer experience this holiday season, and for all the months that follow.
The Online Shopping Statistics You Need to Know
While it’s not difficult to believe that online shopping has trended upward since its creation, particularly in the past 10 years, the true number of e-commerce participants is staggering:
Such rapid growth in the e-commerce space is a fantastic opportunity for businesses of all sizes to scale their brand awareness and beat quarterly profit goals, but it also means a much greater need for comprehensive fraud prevention during peak seasons like the upcoming holidays:
Though most digital brands are currently focusing on this year’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years sales, it’s not only the winter holidays they need to worry about. Every peak buying period, from Memorial Day and the Super Bowl in the U.S. to other major events in the online gaming world, present significant risks.
Familiarizing Yourself with Common Types of E-Commerce Fraud
E-commerce fraud is, unfortunately, not a new development, and although there’s no universal law forcing retailers to implement fraud prevention systems, most businesses try to protect themselves from the most common types of financial attacks.
- Account Takeover Fraud: From the use of keylogging software and credential stuffing to brute-force attacks, ATO fraud is a devastating crime that occurs when cybercriminals illegally access an individual’s online account to manipulate their money or personal information.
- Chargeback Fraud: Sometimes also called friendly fraud due to the fact that the consumer is actually the one instigating the transaction, chargeback fraud occurs when someone makes a purchase and then exploits the returns process for financial gain.
- Refund Fraud: If a fraudster illegally purchases items with a stolen card, they might allow those goods to be delivered rather than file a chargeback claim. The fraudster then requests reimbursement, claiming their items never arrived.
- Credit Card Fraud: Yes, this type of e-commerce fraud is old, and yes, it’s still a major concern. Credit card fraud involves the unauthorized procurement and use of a customer’s credit card information for illegal cash withdrawal or purchase purposes.
- Card Testing Fraud: This more advanced type of credit card fraud has recently gained popularity. It involves a bad actor making small, preliminary purchases on a stolen card to check its validity and credit limit before making much larger purchases.
How To Balance High Demand with Fraud Prevention
So far, we’ve discussed the impending uptick in customer spending and associated cybercrime, but your business likely needs a way to address both. People will continue to buy, and e-commerce attacks will continue to happen, so how can retailers balance fast-paced consumer demand and heightened security risks to mitigate customer and revenue loss?
- Invest in fraud prevention systems that perform accurately and efficiently, using multiple data points to verify customer identity and credentials.
- Choose a fraud prevention tool that seamlessly integrates into your business’s existing platform for quick customer onboarding and increased consumer trust.
- Understand that whichever fraud prevention solution you choose, it should also be compliant with federal and state regulations to keep your business above board.
How EVS Fraud Prevention Puts Your Brand in the Driver’s Seat
EVS is a leading global provider of identity and electronic verification for retailers. Our solutions are widely known for preventing chargebacks during peak buying events, from major holidays to large-scale sporting events. With more than 24 years of experience protecting large- and small-scale businesses, more than one billion transactions processed, and more than 5,000 data sources at our disposal, our fraud prevention tools are second to none.
AssureID: Validates the authenticity of a consumer document, data, and photo within our signature BlueAssure online portal or API.
AssurePay: Verifies ownership and authenticity of credit cards at the point of purchase to prevent fraudulent transactions, reduce chargebacks, and avoid false declines.
AssureCard: Validates government-issued IDs and can work in tandem with AssureCard in the BlueAssure platform to meet your business’s needs.
AssureKYC: Checks multiple data sources to verify consumer identity in single transactions, identify high-risk individuals, prevent fraud, drive revenue, and maintain KYC compliance.
The Multi-Faceted Benefits of EVS Fraud Prevention
Aside from the obvious benefits outlined above, our suite of fraud prevention solutions offers a plethora of other benefits to your brand. First, we deliver the most accurate results with the greatest speed. Secondly, your business can pick and choose the solutions it needs most, layer them within the BlueAssure platform, and enjoy seamless API integration that provides high-level flexibility and customization options.
Our EVS fraud prevention solutions can be easily implemented within your existing retail system, e-commerce platform, or payment processor so you can build your own bespoke fraud prevention defense without ever slowing down internal operations. Thanks to EVS’s investment in AI and machine learning tools, our solutions can also quickly detect unusual patterns in consumer card use or online behavior.
Real-time verification capabilities enable customers to enjoy a seamless, positive onboarding experience that prevents cart abandonment and increases sales and loyalty – not just during peak times, but in all the months that follow. Our solutions also give you the ability to stay in compliance with government KYC and AML regulations, so you’re not only protected from cybercrime, but you’re also avoiding e-commerce compliance fines.
Last on the list of EVS fraud prevention benefits is our system’s versatility. Our BlueAssure platform tools are built for scalability, so your business can easily handle increased volume during high-traffic periods. Our flexible systems allow retailers to tailor verification workflows based on risk levels to meet their specific and ever-changing security needs, so you’re always protected in exactly the ways you need most.
Help Your Business Thrive This Season with Bespoke EVS Fraud Prevention Solutions
The more you arm yourself with fraud prevention knowledge and resources, the better protected your business can be. The experts at EVS are ready to help your business prevent fraud while providing a fast, secure experience for your customers. Our unique approach to identity verification and electronic verification for retailers can aid in preventing chargebacks during peak buying seasons. We balance speed and security to build consumer trust and drive conversions, all while delivering a frictionless buying experience.
If your business is ready to ditch the headache of holiday cyberattacks and actually enjoy its next high season of sales, contact the EVS team to learn more about our suite of comprehensive identity verification and fraud prevention solutions.
