Ho Ho Ho!

Let’s all defraud-O

It’s the holiday season again and we are all busy finalizing projects, closing last-minute deals, preparing for next year’s challenges and shopping around the Christmas tree. All this time, fraudsters are also extremely busy finding new and, possibly, untraceable ways to steal our money.

This time of the year, consumers are always one click closer to being defrauded. Retailers’ fears, that all fraudsters will be prone to go online after the introduction of EMV cards, might actually be true. Due to the new chip technology, it's getting harder and harder to steal credit card information from in-store computers. According to fraud prevention company Trustev, online attacks could grow as much as 106%.

Perhaps you’re wondering why is there more fraud during the holiday season. Well, that’s because more people are shopping more items from more websites, some of them not that trustworthy. So, while we juggle with work tasks, shopping, travel and some more shopping, fraudsters are taking advantage of any opportunity to commit fraud.

Additionally, higher transaction volumes and a demand for faster turnaround times put pressure on retailers, which makes proper screening difficult. And, ultimately, this leads to merchant loss and negative customer experience. And to a not-so-jolly Christmas.

However, even if we might feel that it’s retailers’ responsibility to protect us, we, as customers, should also take any measure to make sure our money stays in our accounts. Monitoring bank accounts, shopping only from reputable websites, looking for merchants that use 3D Secure and not oversharing financial details are just a few of the ways we can protect ourselves.

Have a safe, safe Christmas/Shopping down the street…and online :)