Online frauds soars as botnets attack

The surge in fraudulent e-commerce transactions which was predicted in the wake of U.S. EMV compliance may already be happening.



According to the new Online Fraud Index from payment platform provider Pymnts.com and security technology vendor Forster, fraud attacks on U.S. online retailers rose 163% during the first three quarters of 2015. Interestingly, this large increase in online fraud preceded the Oct. 1, 2015 EMV mandate, although many retailers had already begun or even completed EMV compliance efforts during that time.



The percentage of fraudulent e-commerce transactions grew from 0.8% in the first quarter of 2015 to 2.1% in the third quarter. However, average fraudulent transaction amount actually dipped from $114 to $96. The increase in fraudulent transactions still resulted in the percentage of online sales represented by fraud growing to 3.4% from 1.6%.



Suspected botnet attacks, which take over large numbers of PCs to use them in performing malicious activities, rose from 33% of online fraud attempts in first quarter 2015 to 82% by the third quarter. This is a much higher rate of suspected botnet attacks than recorded anywhere else in the world.