October 31, 2014 - As November approaches, data science company Feedzai is warning that the month is the fraudsters' favourite, when both card-present and card-not-present crime spike.
Feedzai has analysed data representing 17.5 billion transactions worth $750 billion. The firm found that in 2013, the 10 days with the most CNP fraud all occurred in November. Overall, more than three times more CNP fraud occurs in this month than in June.
But none of the top CNP fraud days come on Black Friday, because crooks are too busy joining regular shoppers in the post-Thanksgiving rush to bricks and mortar stores, making the day the biggest of the year for card present fraud.
The average CNP fraudster is a bigger spender than his CP counterpart, racking up about $900 per card in five days, compared to just $450. Mondays have the highest rate of fraud, with crooks generally taking Sunday as a day of rest.
Grocery stores and supermarkets are the top targets for card-present fraud, accounting for 25%. For card-not-present, electronics stores account for 11% of fraud, and discount outlets 10.2%.
Nuno Sebastiao, CEO, Feedzai, says: "As we approach the holiday season, we are bound to see more evidence in fraud, especially with CNP transactions, and it will likely be bigger this season than last."
Separately, a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research is warning that the US's move to EMV chip cards will not prevent the country's rapidly growing card-not-present fraud problem. Javelin looked at the UK market and found that while the introduction of EMV did cut fraud at the point-of-sale, it had no such effect online, where most crime occurs.
The firm predicts that in 2018, CNP fraud will be four times greater than CP fraud. CNP fraud will grow substantially, but this will be because more people buy online and through their mobiles, not because crooks change their methods in a post-EMV environment.
Nick Holland, senior payments analyst, Javelin, says: "EMV is not a holistic solution to card fraud and therefore should be implemented in parallel with solutions that are designed to deal with where fraud is growing the most - online. CNP fraud cannot be underestimated in growth or expense."
