Why a Focus on Fraud Is Needed with Mobile Payments

Digital payments were already a booming industry but since the COVID-19 pandemic record numbers of online payments are being processed across all channels. Fraudsters’ ultimate aim is financial, so payment systems are the ideal target – making fraud prevention more important than ever.

Digital Fraud Is On the Up

Tremendous transition and acceleration of online consumption and payments during the pandemic has led to an “obvious uptick in fraud”. Adoption of online and mobile payments comes with risk of transactions falling prey to fraudsters and FIS reported 38% of merchants lost at least 6% of their revenue to payments fraud in 2020.

Internet traffic surged about 60%, money spent by online shoppers nearly doubled and more than $1 trillion was stolen in 2020 due to cybercrime. Targeted the most in 2020 were e-commerce, digital wallet transactions, and digital currency transactions. Now 22% of merchants say payment fraud is a critical challenge for their business.

Mobile Money at Risk

With digital transactions there will always be a risk of fraud and mobile content is no exception. Cyber criminals are using ever-evolving and innovative ways to exploit customers paying through their mobile phone as well as merchants, mobile operators and aggregators.

While numbers are up it is important to note that this is all relative and a reflection of the fact that more services are being accessed and more transactions are happening. Compliance is not the issue here, with some markets at an all-time high, for example the UK alone is 99% compliant according to a study from Empello.

Consumer Concerns

When it comes to carrier billing The Mobile Payments 2021 MEF Consumer Survey found that globally users are most concerned about payment details being stolen (30%). Closely followed was fear that future payments will be authorised without approval (28%) and fear of subscribing to something without realising (27%). Only 25% of users are not concerned about any security or payment fraud issues.

Building trust in the world of mobile payments is crucial and making an investment in fraud prevention will help minimise complaints and refunds, helping to grow revenues in the long term.

Tackling Fraud

All stakeholders must be aware of fraud and it is important that the entire ecosystem works together to combat fraudulent activity. Fresh challenges must be tackled and having the knowledge and experience to understand the threat landscape is critical to stay ahead of fraudsters and protect revenue for all parties.

To pay via carrier billing customers only need to enter their mobile phone number, no forms or logins means less data is shared and card details are protected – making this mobile payment option a safe and secure choice.

What’s more, SLA Digital take fraud seriously, implementing spending limits, fraud detection features and working with third party fraud prevention providers to ensure fraud doesn’t get in the way for mobile operators and merchants. Talk to us today to find out more.