By News headlines of stolen or taken-over accounts are as old as ecommerce. But recent criminal activity shows just how this technique is a challenge across different sectors and deemed it the typical cybercriminal’s preferred tactic.
The most recent data from Sift’s Digital Trust & Safety Index: Account Takeover Fraud and the Growing Burden on Business indicates a significant increase in ATO attempts. From 2019’s Q2 to 2020’s Q2, the overall account takeover fraud rates (determined by the share of fraudulent sign-in attempts thwarted) jumped 282% across Sift’s entire international merchant network.
Sift gathered this data from its international merchant network of more than 34,000 ecommerce websites and apps and supplemented it with a poll of over 1,000+ customers.
Digital & physical eCommerce felt the most impact put side by side with others. Add to 2020’s messed up economy, and it’s easy to tell that the risk is now worse for various target groups.
Businesses can no longer rely on market predictions because trends are irregular. And cybersecurity experts are facing a never-seen-before challenge of battling without the right fraud-protection tools and data that they’ve long relied on.
How Far-Reaching Effects ATO Fraud?
A growing concern among merchants is the mounting proof that ATO can threaten to break your bottom line and have a long-lasting negative impact that surpasses the takeover itself.
A third of interviews shoppers and service seekers say that if their accounts were hacked, they’d quit using the compromised service or website and go for their rival.
It’s a tragedy to lose an entire 28 percent of first-time visitors. But ATO costs worsen if a brand considers the impact of client abandonment on average shoppers’ lifetime value or its effect on customer acquisition costs.
As if that’s not all, a business still has to bear the heavy load of nightmare customer reviews and a brand reputation plagued by fraud.
To end things off
This recently rolled-out report offers ecommerce useful insights into the ins and outs of account takeover and how it can threaten to put you out of business.
It covers everything from customer expectations on data safety to ATO’s effect on purchase habits. This new exclusive analyzes how cybercriminals take advantage of security loopholes and how cybersecurity experts can thwart ATO fraud in pandemic-era e-commerce.
Author Bio: Payment industry guru Taylor Cole is a passionate payments expert from bestpaymentproviders.com who understands the complex world of merchant accounts. He also writes non-fiction on subjects ranging from personal finance to stocks to cryptopay. He enjoys eating pie with ice-cream on his backyard porch, as should all right-thinking people.
