E-commerce

Cyber fraud growing faster than online retail

While the number of online purchases only grew by seven percent in the previous year, the number of attacks on e-commerce transactions rose by 59 percent.

(Bild: TarikVision - stock.adobe.com)

Cyber fraudsters have greatly expanded their criminal activities in online retail worldwide in the past year. This is the conclusion reached by the US data security service provider Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions in its new annual report on the development of cybercrime published on Wednesday. 

According to the report, the number of online purchases only increased by a comparatively moderate seven percent last year. However, the number of attacks on e-commerce transactions initiated by human perpetrators rose much faster by 59 percent. This refers to cyber attacks that are not attributable to computer networks ("bots") previously programmed by the perpetrators.

The authors estimate the overall growth in online attacks originating from humans at 19 percent. In addition to actual online trading, this also includes attacks on banking transactions or computer and online gambling.

Hotspot North America
The analysis is based on the company's own data from the "Digital Identity Network", a platform for verifying customer data. According to Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions, 92 billion online transactions were analyzed. The majority of cyber attacks still occur in North America. The most common form, accounting for almost 29 percent of cases, is the takeover of an online account using stolen access data.

According to the authors, "scam centers" that develop fraudulent fake websites and computer viruses have emerged in remote regions of Southeast Asia, such as the border regions of Myanmar and Cambodia. According to Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions, these also include call centers with supposed customer service employees who are supposed to trick victims out of their personal access data for online accounts.