web and mobile fraud
Dial 'M' for mobile fraud
More retailers are enjoying the benefits of mobile commerce but many are not yet doing enough to counteract the fraud risks that come with this opportunity, a new study suggests.
The third-annual Mobile Payments & Fraud: 2015 Report, commissioned by Kount, found that the number of retailers actively supporting mobile commerce continued to climb, with 68.7% (compared to 63.6% last year) of all retailers now supporting mobile commerce and a further 20.5% (compared to 24.7% last year) planning to support it from this year.
M-commerce is particularly important to larger online retailers with 57% of those with annual revenues of €45 million or more saying their mobile strategies are very important, compared to 31% of those with revenues of less than €45 million. Some 89.1% of respondents say the channel is important for their growth plans, up from 83.5% last year.
But while addressing fraud risks has become less of a priority, fewer than 40% (39.4%) of retailers said they were tracking fraud by channel, while 34.2% were uncertain whether they were. Merchants with annual revenues of at least €45 million were more likely to track fraud attempts and losses by channel than those with lower revenues. Meanwhile, most respondents (61.0%) were uncertain whether fraud was increasing in their mobile channel; 4.8% said it was decreasing, and 13.2% said they were increasing.
When asked if the mobile channel demanded extra tools to manage fraud risk, 28.4% said standard ecommerce fraud processes and tools were enough, while 47.4% said it did require extra tools because standard ecommerce fraud processes and tools could not support it fully. Some 24.2% said mobile required very specialised fraud tools.
Don Bush, VP Marketing at Kount said that; “Different channels have different challenges. Merchants need to be aware that fighting mobile fraud requires specialised tools, which is something Kount has been advocating for a long time now. Not securing a mobile channel with specific tools will leave a merchant vulnerable.”
Of the almost 1,500 people questioned for the study between November 2014 and January 2015, 51.3% were retailers operating in sectors including clothing and accessories, sold by 45.4%, homewares (23.4%), health and beauty products (23.1%) and computers and electronics (20.7%). Some 63% of those questioned had been selling online for at least five years.
For more information on the study, visit http://www.kount.com/
