LexisNexis® Risk Solutions 2016 True Cost of Fraud℠ Study Finds Fraudulent Retail Transactions Up Sharply Year Over Year, While Every Dollar of Fraud Costs Merchants $2.40, Up From $2.23

5/24/2016

ATLANTA - Today LexisNexis® Risk Solutions released its comprehensive 2016 True Cost of Fraud℠ report at the 2016 Card Not Present Expo. The study includes a survey of over 1,000 risk and fraud executives in ecommerce and multichannel retail organizations, and details current trends in retail fraud and the effects these have on the ability of merchants of all sizes to prevent and catch fraudulent transactions. 

A central feature of the report, the LexisNexis Fraud Multiplier℠, estimates the total amount of loss a merchant incurs, based on the actual dollar value of a fraudulent transaction. This year, every dollar of fraud cost merchants $2.40, up from $2.23 a year ago, according to the Fraud Multiplier tool. Also, the report finds that the volume of fraud has risen sharply in the last year—from a monthly average of 156 to 206 successful fraudulent transactions, and from 177 to 236 prevented fraudulent transactions—while the level of fraud as a percentage of revenues has also inched upward from 1.32 percent to 1.47 percent. However, these values represent a moving target—the opportunities for retail fraud become ever more abundant as new access channels and payment methods, including mobile wallets, the U.S. EMV rollout, and digital channel applications make the payment and regulatory landscape ever more complex for merchants. The study also looks at ways of managing fraud, from automated to manual methods.

Notes LexisNexis Risk Solutions Director of eCommerce and Payments and study author, Aaron Press: “Merchants leveraging remote channels experience a disproportionate amount of fraud, and they are especially challenged in the mobile channel.”

Other findings of the report include:

• Chargebacks remain high among remote channel merchants and small domestic merchants, with a 49% increase, for example, among eCommerce merchants.
• Credit cards remain the most common method of payment for fraud—41% to 63% across all merchant categories—presenting a particular challenge to mobile commerce merchants.
• The percent of revenue lost to fraud continues to increase, hitting mCommerce and international merchants the hardest at 1.69%.

The study looks at merchant attitudes toward fraud prevention and the challenges they face. Observes Aaron Press: “Taking a comprehensive look at fraud prevention best practices among remote channel merchants, we see advantages in taking a multi-layer approach, shifting spend toward automation and away from high levels of manual reviews.”

2016 LexisNexis® True Cost of Fraud℠ Study Methodology
This is the seventh annual comprehensive research study on U.S. merchant fraud conducted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The methodology of this study targeted U.S. retailers with a comprehensive survey of 1,007 risk and fraud executives in retail organizations conducted during February 2016. Respondents represented all channels, company sizes, industry segments, and payment methods. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.1% at the 95 percent confidence level. Data reflect the U.S. Merchant population based on weighting to U.S. Economic Census.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.