Tough Customers and Thieves: How Fraudsters Disguised as Your Most Demanding Customers May Be Robbing You Blind.
If you’re an online retailer, you’ll be well familiar with the perennially unsatisfied consumer who demands services, discounts, and refunds at every turn. As long as people have sold things, there have been tough customers. But, in online sales, these demanding buyers aren’t always customers — often, they’re fraudsters, who claim that all of their online purchases had problems that required a refund.
Taking returns in isolation, it can be very difficult to differentiate the tough customers from the fraudsters. That makes this type of first-party or “friendly fraud” a serious, hidden cost for many online businesses.
Based on a recent, in-depth survey of friendly fraud conducted by Fraud.net, we saw bad news, and good news. The bad news is that it’s an extremely pervasive, and costly form of fraud for online vendors and banks. The good news is that, with the proper procedures in place, friendly fraud is detectable and preventable.
- What is friendly fraud?
- The High Price of Hidden Fraud
- Traditional fraud prevention doesn’t work
- A comprehensive solution is needed