With the proliferation of online shopping, ecommerce scams continue to threaten business owners.
This year alone, Juniper Research predicts ecommerce fraud may cost merchants more than $48 billion globally — up from $41 billion in 2022.1
From overpayment scams to return policy abuse, cybercriminals are persistent. But you can avoid falling for scams by taking proactive steps and knowing what to watch out for. Read on for some of the most common types of ecommerce fraud, plus how they can affect your business and what you can do to prevent them.
Ecommerce fraud, also known as payment fraud, occurs when stolen or fake information is used to conduct an illegal online transaction. Fraudsters generally commit scams for financial or personal gain, creating fake aliases to steal money from either the merchant, the customer, or a combination of the two.
Read below to learn about the types of common ecommerce fraud:
The buyer asks you to use a specific shipping service. They may claim they can get a discount or that they have a preferred vendor who is more reliable. In reality, they can easily contact the shipping company and reroute the order to another address.
Tips to help avoid a shipping service scam: Use only your shipping account, review the order for other fraudulent red flags, verify the customer’s shipping address, and ship to the address detailed on the transaction.
The buyer asks you to use a prepaid shipping label provided by them, but the shipping labels could’ve been purchased with a stolen credit card. Or they may attempt to send the package to another country, PO Box, or an untraceable location.
Tips to help avoid a prepaid shipping label scam: Don’t accept shipping labels and only ship to the address on the transaction. This also helps ensure that you remain covered under the PayPal Seller Protection policy on eligible transactions.
The buyer provides an incorrect or fake shipping address and, when the package cannot be delivered, contacts the shipping company directly to reroute the package to a new location. They then file a complaint saying they never received the package because it was rerouted. In this case, the seller won’t be able to prove the item was delivered.
Here’s what the scenario may look like:
Tips to help avoid a package rerouting scam: Work with your shipping company to block buyers from rerouting packages, and also validate a buyer’s address before shipping.
A customer attempts to overpay for an item or an order and asks you to wire them the difference. They may be using a stolen credit card or account to pay you, and if the legitimate account holder reports unauthorised activity, that money can be withdrawn from your account.
Tips to help avoid an overpayment scam: Never wire money to someone you don’t know, and if a customer overpays, consider cancelling the order as it’s likely to be fraudulent.
This happens when someone contacts you to be their employee or partner. They ask you to sell products on an online marketplace or a website, pay their supplier, and update your business account address to their address. They can then conduct fraudulent transactions, and you may be liable.
Here’s an example:
Tips to help avoid an employment scam: Never list someone else’s address or send money to someone you don’t know. You should also verify all your suppliers.
In some cases, you might give your employees access to your account so they can do their job. Unfortunately, this opens you up to fraud risk. An employee may transfer money to their account, their friend's accounts, or to an offshore account. When you ask where the money went, they may tell you it was for a customer refund, used to pay a supplier, or used for payroll.
Tips to help avoid an employee theft scam:
You sold something, and the buyer files a complaint stating the product was damaged, you sent the wrong order, or the product was broken. When this happens, the buyer would be asked to send the product back to you. The buyer may be telling the truth — packages get damaged in shipment from time to time. But if you notice that an item the buyer said was broken is in perfect condition or the buyer used the item before sending it back, they may be trying to take advantage of you. Maybe they found it for less somewhere else or they’re trying to avoid your return policy.
Tips to help avoid return policy abuse:
Affiliate fraud occurs when affiliates or third-party marketers use illegal methods to earn commissions from promoting products or services, such as creating fake websites, generating false sales, using fake traffic sources, or manipulating tracking and reporting. The result is that the advertiser loses money, and the affiliates are paid commissions they didn’t rightfully earn.
If you use affiliate marketers to help increase your sales, there are some additional things to be aware of. As a refresher, here’s how it works:
Fraudulent affiliates take advantage of your revenue-share program by placing orders using stolen credit cards, then:
Tips to help avoid affiliate fraud:
New scams pop up often, so it’s critical to keep an eye on fraud trends and work with partners who can help prevent fraud.
To help reduce your business risk, below are fraud management techniques you can consider integrating into your business:
Learn more about fraud management and fraud protection.
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