Travel sites in the US saw the biggest decline in online fraud attack rates during 2016 from the six verticals analysed in a report from Forter.
Its Fraud Attack Index was produced in conjunction with the Merchant Risk Council. It ranks travel, luxury, apparel, electronics, food & beverage and digital goods according to the dollars at risk from successful and unsuccessful fraud per $100 of sales.
Overall, online fraud attacks were up by 8.9% in 2016 compared with the previous year. Travel was down by 33% year-on-year, the most improved vertical. In comparison, apparel attacks were up by nearly 70%.
However, Forter noted that travel saw "dramatic fluctuations" in the scale of attacks on US-based travel sites. The dollar amounts at risk for travel are greater than in the other segments, from both domestic and international fraudsters.
In the first quarter of 2016, domestic fraud represented a risk to travel sites of $2.91 compared with $11 in the same period in 2015. For international fraud, Q1 2016's risk came in at $6.77 compared with Q1 2015's $16.50.
Across all verticals, the threat from international fraud is 62% higher than for domestic.
The Q1 drop in domestic threats was attributed to the introduction of EMV, a new technology introduced by credit cards providers in October 2015. Having said that, the fraudsters have adapted and have found new vulnerabilities across the e-commerce space, with the net result being that attacks from domestic fraudsters on US sites has actually increased in 2016.
"New payment methods are examined for weaknesses which are exploited if found, new buyer trends such as the move to omnichannel may be used for concealment or as the basis for a new kind of attacks," it says.
One trend across verticals to which travel is exposed is "account take over", in which fraudsters gain access to an Paypal, ApplePay or GooglePay account and uses these details to make what appears to the merchant site as a legitimate transaction.
This leads into one area where travel is identified as particularly vulnerable - pre-paid credit cards which can be funded via details stolen from digital wallets.
Click here for details on how to access the full report.
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