U.K. E-Commerce Fraud Rate Twice That of
U.S. and Canada
Jan. 21, 2011
CyberSource, the e-commerce processor acquired by Visa last spring
(CNP Report April
23, 2010), recently released the results of its annual survey examining
fraud in the U.K. The Mountain View Claif.-based unit, estimated that the fraud
rate for e-commerce merchants in the U.K. rose slightly to 1.9 percent in 2010
from 1.6 percent in 2009, around twice the rate of that found in North America
(which held steady from 2009 to 2010 at .9 percent). CyberSource experts said likely
causes for the higher rate in the U.K. include the greater incidence of
cross-border e-commerce within the European region and the fact that fraudsters,
facing stiff anti-fraud measures in one location, direct their efforts
elsewhere, including the U.K. "U.K. merchants have long been more
internationally focused," said Akif Khan, director, products and services
for CyberSource. "The share of U.K. merchant revenue derived from international
online orders is about 50 percent higher than that of North American merchants.
And year after year, CyberSource surveys show the fraud rate associated with
international orders is higher. More generally,” Khan continued, “as e-commerce
becomes more global, fraudsters can easily migrate from one location to the
next.”