Ecommerce has broken billing records in Spain over the past year, after growing more than 10% and exceed 57,700 million euros, according to data from the CNMC. This growth has been linked to the rise of fraud that is being carried out through online businesses.
The number of fraudulent web pages detected in the world increased by practically 3% in the last quarter of 2021. Sites posing as ecommerce platforms represented 9.4% of that total, according to data provided by ESET. In addition, according to a study carried out by TransUnion, online fraud attempts originating in Spain grew by 11.3% over the past year.
The increase in electronic payments, which will practically triple in 2030, reaching a figure of 3 billion operations in the world, causes cyber attacks to be on the rise. And it is that, in 2021 they increased by 50% compared to the previous year. In addition, identity fraud affected 42 million people in 2021, resulting in losses of $52 billion.
The most frequent frauds in ecommerce
Online scams can be propitiated by different methods and channels. Online impersonation, bots, identity theft or cybercriminals themselves are the most widely used tactics today.
- Phishing and Pharming: are the two most common methods of spoofing. Phishing consists in the fact that the cybercriminal manages to deceive the user through an email (spam) inciting him to carry out a banking operation on a fraudulent page. While in Pharming it is not necessary to carry out any operation, just enter through your browser to a supposed original page.
- botnets: These are computer robots that are installed on computers (through spam or malware) to buy through the user’s IP. This type of fraud usually originates from countries that are used to committing crimes in online purchases and, in order to carry them out, they use an IP from another place to make it appear that the purchase has been made from another country. This type of crime is carried out more in ecommerce than ticketing.
- Affiliate Fraud: The user receives a campaign with various discounted products. The website and the discounts look real, but it is a fake landing page.
- Re-shipping: In this type of scam there are two people involved. One of them is the one who makes the purchase online with a stolen card, while the other is the one who receives the merchandise (to avoid the first being discovered). Once received, it is sent to the buyer.
- Account takeover: the fraudster obtains the data of a client and takes control of his account to modify some of them and be able to make the purchase online. You can change the shipping address, phone number, email…
