Shift4Shop eCommerce Blog | Fraud Prevention

Ecommerce websites have always been one of the most common targets of digital attacks. For digital thieves, it is a treasure trove full of personal and financial information about active customers.

Once a business’s security has been breached, it leads to data loss and depletes the trust that could have been gained over the years.

Much like the year that preceded it, 2021’s holiday season looks to be unprecedented for online shopping. Unemployment is low and government economic stimulus checks are helping to give consumers the confidence needed to do a little extra spending on their friends and families this year. At the same time, supply chain issues are real and concerns about inflation loom, driving many buyers to get their shopping in as early as possible.

Online security is at the forefront of risk management in modern businesses. However, it extends beyond mere business safety. Online safety risks are entirely mainstream. In the early days of e-commerce, you might remember that people were hesitant to share their credit card information online. Then, new services and security features came about that made people trust online retailers, and the concept largely disappeared from the public eye.

eCommerce fraud has been increasing and continues to be on the rise. Projected losses from credit card fraud are expected to reach nearly $50 billion by 2025.

Merchants new to eCommerce may be aware of eCommerce fraud but aren’t familiar with how it works or most importantly, how to protect themselves and their customers. The most important step a merchant should take to combat eCommerce fraud is to gain an understanding of what it is and how it can impact their business.

How often do you go to a shop? With the ability to order items online and have them delivered within the same day, the retail experience has completely changed. We can get everything we need without moving from the couch. Pajamas on. Shopping mode engaged. Welcome to the digital age. But what does this mean for the retail industry?

If COVID-19 hasn’t touched your life yet, consider yourself lucky.

This pandemic has impacted the daily lifestyles of everyone, from corporate heads to stay-at-home parents. With fluctuating shelter-in-place orders and lockdowns around the world ongoing, people are spending more and more time online, attending virtual meetings, completing digital assignments, and shopping from home.

But, alongside this increase in screen time, the pandemic has seen a rapid rise in cybersecurity breaches for[...]

As an online merchant, you must understand the financial risks in the eCommerce industry. Understanding the risks gives you the know-how to navigate online retail challenges smoothly, especially if acquiring banks label you as a high-risk merchant.

Because of the nature of eCommerce, criminals may exploit your online business for illegitimate purposes. Fraudsters continue to target unsuspecting businesses by placing digital orders, receiving the service or product, and deliberately filing a[...]

Scams on Amazon have been around since the dawn of time and a more ingenious loophole is discovered every day. As an Amazon seller, you have to protect your business from the different types of swindles that surge from day to day. Especially from buyer scams since they can take up a big chunk of your time, peace of mind, and money.

Counterfeit seller accounts are commonplace on Amazon and it seems they will continue to be every seller’s nightmare for years to come. On top of this, Amazon[...]

The internet has always been a double-edged sword. While it’s capable of bringing people together and putting everything right at your fingertips, it’s also just as powerful at using all of those things against you.

Being online means that you are simultaneously powerful and vulnerable. And, unfortunately, being taken advantage of online has become more and more common, especially as technology advances. Of course, while there are plenty of bad actors out there online (and there always have[...]

Hacking and cyber attacks have been the bane of websites since the internet’s creation, and that still hasn’t changed. As security measures get more advanced, so do hacking strategies. Any website being hacked is a serious ordeal, but stakes are elevated in the case of eCommerce due to the sheer amount of sensitive data that can be breached and stolen from online stores.

As a merchant, you want your business to be as secure as possible and your customer’s information safe from bad actors.[...]

During the third quarter of 2017, online sales witnessed a boom of $107 billion dollars according to the U.S Census Bureau. Since then, e-commerce sales have increased by 14% in 2018. But, with an increased number of online sales (that provide larger profit margins) comes with it an even greater number of eCommerce security threats to which you can lose everything. 

One of the greatest challenges you face as an online retailer isn’t losing money to fraudsters. It’s losing money when legitimate customer transactions are incorrectly flagged as fraudulent and declined.

In fact, according to Riskified, a whopping 35% ­- 80% of declined orders are legitimate. To clarify, these are transactions that may, on the surface, appear to be fraudulent, but are actually real orders placed by good customers.

These false declines, also called false positives, hurt online[...]

Just as the age of digital has brought to us borderless trade and increasing connectivity, along with it has risen the trend of cybersecurity threats. Online retailers will be one group of website owners that has to keep web security best practices firmly targeted in their crosshairs.

Over the past 15 years, there have been more than 8,000 data breaches recorded while incidences of new threats such as Ransomware and formjacking continue to rise.

This makes the digital space perilous for online[...]

This last decade we’ve witnessed the internet revolution grow almost exponentially. It seamlessly seeped into every aspect of our lives. I think we could unanimously agree that the Internet has simplified things on many fronts, be it shopping, banking, investing, entertainment, and many more. And we seem to have kept up with this change quite remarkably. But so did the criminals. Harassing, fooling and cheating someone in real life is a concept from the past. Today, it is the internet where[...]

Security is a vital component of eCommerce, especially since the risk of fraud can be high. Digital shopping relies on card-not-present transactions, meaning the customer's identity is much harder to verify than in-person transactions. To counteract these risks, other methods have been developed to verify that a digital transaction is legitimately being performed by the true cardholder, and not by a fraudster using stolen information.

The EMV 3-D Secure (commonly known as 3-D Secure 2.0)[...]

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is a saying that you’ve probably heard time and time again throughout your life. On a fundamental level all of us know that it is true. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Isn’t it better to be prepared for something that doesn’t happen as opposed to not being prepared for something that does? This is the same mentality you need to have when it comes to protecting your e-commerce store.

If you don’t take the time now to create the[...]

There are a lot of benefits that come from deciding to start a business online. There are number of benefits that come from deciding to move from a strictly brick-and-mortar operation to one that offers products and services online. There are also a number of risks.

The risk of online fraud is drastically different than the traditional fraud risk retailers experience in a brick-and-mortar business. A lot of this risk stems from the fact that you do not see the individual who is at the other end[...]

When trying to start their own eCommerce business, you will inevitably consider which features you will need for your website. Given that you are almost certainly on a budget, you will likely separate these tools between which ones you need and which ones you do not need but might like to have. The idea here is that you keep what you know you will need, get anything else you can, and save anything else you might like for later.

However, before making any firm decisions, you must know what[...]

Fraud is a nightmare for customers and merchants alike. With constant news of data breaches, shoppers are rightfully concerned about the safety of their payment data. The thought of a stranger racking up thousands of dollars in debt keeps many customers up at night — and causes them to have second thoughts about buying from you.

Retailers are hurt just as badly by fraudulent credit card transactions. Fraud causes chargebacks, possible loss of products, and damage to a merchant's reputation, all[...]

4 Common Elements of Fraudulent Orders