SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Merchants are now throwing more and more money at the crisis and expanding fraud teams in a bid to mitigate losses .

In the UK , over half ( 58 %) of online businesses polled plan to grow their fraud teams in the next 12 months . In other parts of the world , the trend is even more pronounced . Eighty percent of merchants in Germany , 72 % in the US and 86 % in Australia expect teams to grow in size , Ravelin has found .

New approaches are urgently needed to fight fraud and minimise losses .

But when it comes to tools for tackling fraud most businesses ( 78 %) opt for in-house solutions , which are expensive to maintain and quickly become unsustainable as a business grows . In the UK the figure is 80 % while in France it ’ s 81 % and in Germany 77 %.

Ravelin CEO , Martin Sweeney , said : “ Over the years merchants have built up fraud investigation teams which they ’ re justifiably proud of . But fraud continues to grow and mutate , simply throwing more people and money at the problem won ’ t make it go away . Losses will continue to grow .

“ Businesses need to get on the front foot managing fraud : using automation to nip fraudulent transactions in the bud . Better automation helps teams scale and frees up fraud investigators from mundane tasks enabling them to focus on informing product development , identifying other sources of profit erosion and other more important strategic tasks that drive growth . With the economy in an uncertain place , enabling growth must become the priority .”

Ravelin ’ s Global Fraud Trends 2023 survey also examines the most effective tools for fighting fraud .

Machine Learning ( ML ) and two-factor authentication ( 2FA ) are being adopted more regularly by e-commerce businesses to help with the issue . Almost half ( 48 %) of UK businesses say ML is one of the most effective tools in their arsenal . Three-quarters ( 75 %) of UK merchants say 2FA is crucial .

From feedback across regions , the survey found that there isn ’ t a singular ‘ one and done ’ fraud strategy that ’ s most effective .

Different solutions are effective at fighting different frauds and having a robust tool stack allows teams to consider the complex nature of fraud .

The survey , which spoke to 1,900 global fraud professionals , also examines the increase of ‘ newer ’ types of fraud which are prevalent globally . Policy abuse is experienced by 40 % of businesses spoken to . The UK has the biggest problem with this type of ‘ friendly fraud ’ with over half ( 52 %) of merchants experiencing it .

Reseller and bot activity sits at 53 % globally whereas ‘ fraud as a service ’ schemes were an issue for 56 % of those spoken to . Social engineering via customer services was experienced by 45 % of the companies who took part in the survey . � www . intelligentfin . tech

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