Fraudsters making a killing amid boom in e-commerce

MANILA, Philippines — Fraudsters are taking advantage of the surge in electronic commerce transactions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to FICO, a Silicon Valley-based analytics software firm.

Subhashish Bose, FICO head for fraud, security and compliance in Asia Pacific, said fraud challenges are intensifying as e-commerce sales are predicted to jump by at least 20 percent amid the pandemic, giving fraudsters and scammers the perfect opportunity to lay more traps and scams for consumers.

“We are seeing increases in spoof sites, web skimming of customer details, fraudulent email offers, data breaches and other scams. Criminal groups are also targeting digital wallets and other digital payments channels which have grown in popularity over the pandemic,” Bose said.

Online shopping  across Asia Pacific has been on a steady climb since China’s Alibaba launched Single’s Day on Nov. 11, 2009, making the anti-Valentine’s Day promotion the largest online shopping day in the world with a staggering $38.4 billion sales in 2019, in just 24 hours.

Asia has also embraced Black Friday, 12.12 and to a lesser extent Cyber Monday, allowing it to overtake North America as the world’s largest e-commerce market in 2014.

This year, research provider eMarketer forecasts that Asia Pacific will outpace the rest of the world, with a forecasted growth of 25 percent or $2.27 trillion, representing a whopping 64.3 percent of global e-commerce spending.

“With social distancing rules in place in most countries in Asia Pacific, retailers have been sharpening their online offerings in anticipation of the holiday shopping season,” Bose said.

According to FICO, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the dynamics of this year’s holiday shopping season in Asia Pacific with e-commerce sales expected to boom, creating a significant opportunity for criminals to target consumers.