Since the Coronavirus pandemic began, fraudsters have been increasing their rate of digital schemes against businesses.
That was one of the key findings from the latest quarterly analysis of global online fraud trends by TransUnion.
The company’s report, released Tuesday, analyzed billions of transactions made on more than 40,000 websites and apps during two 365-day periods: Period 1, March 11, 2019 to March 10, 2020, and Period 2, March 11, 2020 and March 10, 2021.
The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
TransUnion said suspected fraudulent digital transaction attempts against businesses worldwide increased 46% from Period 1 to Period 2. During that same timeframe, fraud attempts in the US increased 22%.
Online gaming customers worldwide experienced 19% growth in transactions from 2019 to 2020 to 576m. The study said there was a 9% year-on-year increase in suspected fraud attempts.
“Fraudsters are always looking to take advantage of significant world events. The COVID-19 pandemic and its corresponding rapid digital acceleration brought about by stay-at-home orders is a global event unrivaled in the online age,” Shai Cohen, senior vice president of Global Fraud Solutions at TransUnion, said in a statement. “By analyzing billions of transactions we screened for fraud indicators over the past year, it has become clear that the war against the virus has also brought about a war against digital fraud.”
Melissa Gaddis, senior director of customer success, Global Fraud Solutions at TransUnion, noted a decrease in the online gaming mobile transaction rate for the first time since at least 2016. Still, the percent of online gambling transactions on mobile devices was 69%.
“We believe mobile online gambling transactions dipped because so many people used their desktops while working from home during the pandemic,” Gaddis explained. “However, we expect the long-term impact of mobile to continue to be paramount for business success. Mobile devices will be key to providing a seamless way for online gamblers to transact and businesses to assess risk with biometric-driven multifactor authentication.”
