The number of account takeover (ATO) fraud attacks have soared by 282% over the past year, according to new research from Sift.
Attempted ATO rates have increased by 282% between Q2 2019 and Q2 2020 in the US, and rates for e-commerce businesses have jumped by 378% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The report also cites Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast, which anticipates e-commerce sales to grow by around 25% to 35% and generate between $182bn and $196bn. Combining this with the rise in ATO, Sift is expecting fraudsters to take advantage and hit more online shoppers during the holiday season.
Businesses should put defence against ATO as one of their top priorities, after 28% of US adult consumers featured in the study said they would completely stop using a site if their account was hacked.
While accounts can be secured through password managers, multi-factor authentication and unique passwords, 66% of consumers said they did not use password managers or were uncertain if they did.
Finally, 53% of consumers said they were concerned about being a victim of an ATO attack and 25% stated they already had.
Sift CEO Jason Tan said, “Businesses have been forced to adapt to an immediate shift in consumer behavior since the beginning of the global pandemic. Unfortunately, fraudsters have too.
“The surge in account takeover attacks indicates that merchants can’t leave the burden of account security to their customers. Rather, companies should treat account protection as part of the overall customer experience and as a key part of their Digital Trust & Safety strategy, which allows for seamless transactions while preventing fraud.”
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