Johannesburg,
11
December
2020
|
09:38
Africa/Harare

Online Fraud Rises during Black Friday weekend

TransUnion research finds 6.59% rise in suspected 2020 holiday weekend e-commerce fraud in South Africa compared to same period in 2019

TransUnion has released new findings around online retail trends during the start of the 2020 global holiday shopping season. The research shows a 6.59% rise in suspected online retail fraud[1] coming from South Africa during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season compared to the same period in 2019. The findings are based on the online retail transactions TransUnion analysed for its e-commerce customers between November 26-30.

Heading into the holiday shopping season, the global TransUnion Financial Hardship Study conducted between Nov 1-3 found 41% of 1,100 South African consumers said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19, a 64% increase from the same survey the week of April 13.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the move from offline to online transactions, detecting digital fraud attempts has become paramount for e-commerce providers,” said Keith Wardell, director of product at TransUnion Africa. “To avoid cart abandonment with all of these new sales opportunities, it is equally if not more important to ensure consumers are able to make friction-right digital transactions.”

In addition to the above findings, TransUnion released the following trends around suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions in South Africa during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2018 to 2020.

  • 7.40% from Nov 26-30, 2020; 18.55% so far in 2020.
  • 6.94% from Nov 28-Dec 2, 2019; 5.32% in all of 2019.
  • 3.49% from Nov 22-26, 2018; 8.69% in all of 2018.
  • The days with the highest percent of suspected fraudulent transactions coming from South Africa during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season were:
  1. Sunday, Nov 29: 11.08%
  2. Cyber Monday, Nov 30: 9.42%
  3. Saturday, Nov 28: 6.94%
  4. Thursday, Nov. 26: 6.63%
  5. Black Friday, Nov 27: 4.43%

For an infographic about TransUnion’s holiday online retail findings globally, go here.

[1] Suspected fraudulent and risky transactions are those that TransUnion’s customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators