The number of order attempts declined for suspected fraud increased by nearly 30 percent year-over-year for orders between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to data from iovation, that also found a fraud decline rate 50 percent higher than the yearly average (15 percent vs. 10 percent). Likewise, a cyber security firm found a 63 percent increase in malware while phishing attacks jumped 51 percent on Black Friday.
TransUnion’s iovation reported fraud attempt data across Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday for the previous three years, showing that over this five day period, often called Cyber Weekend, suspected fraud orders increased 29 percent since 2018 and an alarming 60 percent since 2017. iovation additionally reported that fraud declines represented 15 percent of all order attempts between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, compared to 10 percent of order attempts for all of 2019.
Cyber security firm SonicWall found malware and phishing activity was elevated over this peak holiday shopping time as well. During the week ending on Cyber Monday they tallied nearly 130 million malware attacks, a 63 percent increase from the same period in 2018. Malware activity was highest on Black Friday and Cyber Monday when malware attacks were up 130 and 107 percent, respectively.
It’s not just merchants who deal with increased fraud during the peak shopping season, but consumers too. Taking advantage of online deals that seem too-good-to-be-true, fraudsters ratchet up phishing activity as well. SonicWall identified a 51 percent increase in phishing attacks on Black Friday relative to a typical day in 2019.
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