DataVisor: High fraud rates in social networks

Fraud has not taken a holiday during the coronavirus pandemic, quite the opposite. Fraud rates have increased throughout the digital space, according to one new report, as fraudsters have sought to take advantage of gaps in protection that have been highlighted by the sharp uptick in both computer and mobile use during lockdowns and remote work orders.

by Kristina Knight

The social space has been hit especially hard and may be fast becoming the fraudulent space. That is a key takeaway from DataVisor's new Digital Fraud Trends Report. According to their data fraud within social networks showed the highest increase as more consumers logged on, and many were unsure how to detect legitimate communication from fraudulent messages within the space.

And, while fraud was up in the social space, it began trending down in financial spaces as platforms have gotten up to speed with protection. Researchers note that up to 90% of financial fraud attempts are account takeovers, and those numbers continue to rise, but the number of attempted attacks using new account creation or transactions are trending downward.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• Desktop fraud rates are 7.4%, mobile platform fraud rates are 0.5%
• 50% of fraudulent users are using the Windows platform
• 34% of fraudulent users come from web/desktop browsers and 26% from mobile browsers
• 'Rooted' and 'Jailbroken' devices have a 22x higher rate of fraud attacks

"It's becoming harder - and more critical - to separate fraud from fact. As scammers continue to evolve their attacks, fraud departments and organizations need reliable ways to identify new and unknown threats and react in real time without the need for historic data. To do so in today's digital landscape requires the ability to create centralized fraud intelligence with multi-layered security, such as device intelligence and user behaviors to create full customer lifecycle protection," write the report authors.

And the travel industry was also hit hard, not only because people stopped traveling, but because fraudsters focused much of their efforts on the struggling industry that tried to rebound through the summer months with promotions and other offerings to get people to take vacations and getaways.

More trends from DataVisor's Digital Fraud Trends Report can be found here.

Tags: advertising, advertising fraud, advertising fraud trends, DataVisor, ecommerce, mobile marketing, social ad fraud, social marketing