Fraud

For retailers, the mobile inbox has become an extension of the storefront. Promotional alerts, order updates, loyalty rewards and curbside pickup confirmations increasingly reach customers through text messaging. SMS continues to outperform email in engagement, and consumers routinely open and act on messages delivered directly to their phones. Yet as retailers rely more heavily on…

Estée Lauder is suing Walmart, alleging it sold counterfeit beauty products with fake company trademarks on its website, according to a federal lawsuit filed in California on Monday. In the lawsuit, the beauty company claims Walmart advertised, marketed, and sold products that resembled moisturizing creams, eye creams, lotions, parfums, and serums from Estée Lauder and…

After a turbulent 2025, retailers were hoping for a strong golden quarter to close out the year. But their adversaries also typically thrive during the holiday season, as shoppers flood online stores and sales are prioritized over fraud protection. It’s a challenge set to continue in 2026. Some 90 percent of U.S. businesses are concerned…

Retail returns abuse has become internet famous. In recent months, social media users have populated posts on channels like TikTok, highlighting how they could save hundreds of dollars by taking advantage of returns policies set by retailers like Costco, Amazon.com, and Target. In fact, the videos have grown to become a veritable theme on social…

The holiday season reliably brings a surge in digital transactions, and with it a spike in fraud attempts. As retailers tackle their busiest buying period, there’s heightened pressure to make every customer interaction count by stopping fraud without triggering unnecessary friction or false declines. With more than half of retailers reporting digital and e-commerce fraud…

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not only the year’s busiest shopping days, they operate as live stress tests for retailers’ fraud prevention strategies. Last year’s data show exactly how holiday fraud rates surged, with fraudulent transactions jumping nearly fivefold on Black Friday and quadrupling on Cyber Monday, signaling an apparent uptick in risk for…

The holidays are the busiest time of year for retailers and, unfortunately, for fraudsters too. As sales climb and returns pile up, fraud attempts can rise by as much as 30 percent. The challenge isn’t just stopping bad actors; it’s doing it fast enough to protect customers and keep their experience seamless. Even the smartest…

The payments industry is entering a period of heightened accountability, driven by escalating fraud threats and tightening card network standards. As merchant fraud grows more sophisticated, acquiring banks, payment facilitators (payfacs), and independent sales organizations (ISOs) face greater scrutiny to identify and prevent illicit activity. Two major deadlines are reshaping how companies that facilitate payment…

Fraud in retail is on the rise; retailers reported a whopping 93 percent increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 vs. 2019. And return fraud — i.e., abusing returns for monetary gain — plays a big role in this. In 2024, more than 16 percent of retail sales were estimated…

Back-to-school shopping brings a welcome spike in volume for retailers, however, this annual event (or should we say preparation frenzy) has become prime hunting grounds for fraudsters. Return fraud and other retail scams have escalated as e-commerce and omnichannel strategies have gained ground. Seventy-two million Americans used curbside or buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS)…