Published:
November 19, 2024
Reading time:
5 minute read
Written by:
Doriel Abrahams
With the holiday shopping season upon us once more, consumers are showing signs that they intend to spend joyously. Almost half (48%) of the 2024 Trust Premium Report respondents reported that they plan to spend the same amount or more on their holiday shopping as they did last year.
That’s great for retailers but doesn’t reduce the pressure during this intense period.
The Holiday Fraud vs. Customer Experience Dilemma
As traditional as mistletoe and mulled wine, if you’ve been working in digital commerce, the holiday season brings the challenge of giving a fantastic customer experience while stopping fraudsters from stealing your goods.
It’s especially tricky in the holidays because good customers do all sorts of things that are out of their regular routines, such as shipping to unusual destinations as gifts, trying out new stores for the best prices, purchasing the perfect present for a loved one, and so on. During the Flack Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, Forter’s data shows that customers are three times more likely to try out a new website and shop there for the first time compared to any other period in the year.
It’s an excellent opportunity to build relationships by delighting new customers or encourage loyalty by showing existing customers that you can offer them exactly what they need. Creating a great experience and the trust that engenders is well worth it; the Trust Premium Report found that consumers are willing to spend 51% more, on average, with a retailer they trust.
At the same, fraudsters are on the prowl during the holiday season. They know they can hide in the flood of shoppers, and the fact that legitimate customers change their behaviors means it’s more difficult for merchants to distinguish the criminals. Plus, some retailers still rely on manual review, which becomes challenging when orders mount up.
Striking the Right Balance with Shipping
Shipping is an important element that makes the holidays extra interesting for both fraudsters and fraud fighters.
Consumers expect shipping policies to match their requirements, and it matters enough to them that in the Trust Premium Report, 95% said that shipping policies are essential in deciding where to shop. In fact, 53% reported that restrictive shipping policies had caused them to abandon a cart in the last three months.
So retailers can’t afford to be too picky about a consumer’s unusual choice of shipping destination or add too much delay into the process due to manual review.
On the other hand, fraudsters ship to the addresses that suit them for receiving stolen goods, and merchants need to be able to identify when that’s happening and stop it. That’s far more challenging during the holidays when consumers are more than six times more likely to ship an order to an address different from their standard one.
It’s a delicate balancing act to ensure that legitimate customers get their gifts as quickly and smoothly as possible, but fraudsters don’t get their hands on their ill-gotten gains. And what are fraudsters trying to steal this year? Let’s find out.
The Items at the Top of Fraudsters’ Wishlists in 2024
Fraudsters always want to exploit the holiday shopping season to steal items that are:
- Lucrative, but not so pricey that the transaction will be closely reviewed
- Easy to resell for a fast profit
- Either particularly popular with consumers this year or popular year-round
- Available from merchants whose systems have a vulnerability that fraudsters can exploit
Their main goal never changes; they want to make the most money they can with the least amount of work they can manage. Given that, there’s always a similar pattern around the items they target most when they’re trying to make the most of the opportunities offered by the holiday rush.
Every year, though, some standout items seem high on fraudster wishlists. Here’s the list for 2024:
- Luxury bags: Luxury items are no strangers to fraudster attacks. Criminals love the price tag on these goods, and they can resell them at what looks like a great discount (since they didn’t pay anything for them in the first place). This year, attainable luxury is the kind of bag most sought after by fraudsters during the holidays.
- Game consoles: Popular gaming consoles are in fraudsters’ sights this holiday shopping season. If you’re looking to buy one yourself, make sure you purchase it from a legitimate source.
- Perfume: It might be the first time we’ve noticed perfume creep up into the hot seat. Perhaps crooks are looking for some sweet-scented crime this season.
- Athleisure: Sometimes, the clothing most under attack has a winter theme, but this year, criminals seem to be loving the athleisure range.
- Robot vacuum cleaner: Sadly, this isn’t a sign that fraudsters love to have clean homes. These fall into the pricing sweet spot and can be resold all year.
- Sneakers: Sneakers are on and off the wishlist, but they are typically among the more popular items for attack. Limited editions are particularly likely to be in the spotlight.
- Affordable jewelry: While the handbags most under attack are in the attainable luxury bracket, this year, jewelry in the affordable category is most popular with fraudsters. They’re most likely to attempt to steal (and presumably resell) it at scale.
- Smartphones: Smartphones are almost always on the list, and this year, fraudsters may target all of the most popular brands (not just the largest).
- Gift cards: Gift cards are one of the top items every year. Many consumers buy them (making it easier to hide) and look for discounts (making resale easier). From the fraudster’s perspective, a gift card is effectively instant free money. This year, gift cards for large marketplaces and digital stores are particularly popular with the criminal fraternity.
That’s a (gift) wrap for the 2024 fraudster wishlist. Signing off by wishing us all a season of safe, successful shopping!
Doriel Abrahams is the Principal Technologist at Forter and host of ‘What the Fraud?,’ where he monitors emerging trends in the fight against fraudsters, including new fraud rings, attacker MOs, rising technologies, etc. His mission is to provide digital commerce leaders with the latest risk intel so they can adapt and get ahead of what’s to come.