New data from Jumio revealed that online fraud, which had been steadily increasing globally between 2014 and 2016, dropped 17 percent in 2017. During the holiday shopping period of Black Friday through Cyber Monday, fraud dropped 33 percent.
But, said Jumio, the overall declines in online fraud should not suggest that all industries are improving to the same degree. Some sectors, such as financial services, are still experiencing higher-than-average fraud levels. In 2016, the financial services sector experienced a 57.4 percent spike in fraud during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period (compared to the daily average). In 2017, fraud during this period was still higher than the average, but only by 18.4 percent.
“While 2017 witnessed the first decline in fraud in four years, no organization should become complacent. Instead, they should continue investing in ID and identity verification solutions to deter fraud and better establish identity, without scaring off good customers,” said Reinhard Hochrieser, director of product management at Jumio. “Growing tactics like facial scanning and eyeball tracking make it incredibly difficult for fraudsters to mimic someone they’re not. And if a business puts up enough hurdles, fraudsters move on to easier online targets.”
Additional findings:
- Fraud using U.S. IDs during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period grew 182 percent (almost 2x) from 2014-2016. In 2017, however, fraud using U.S. IDs dropped 29 percent during this period compared to 2016 levels.
- In 2017, fraud in financial services was 36.6 percent higher in the EU than the US.
- In 2017, fraud using European IDs is 8.6 percent higher than with U.S. IDs.
- In 2017, fraud declined 17.7 percent for U.S. sharing economy companies, but declined 41.8 percent in the EU.
