How Fraudsters Profit from E-commerce Fraud

As a career path, e-commerce fraud looks like it has a lot of advantages. A ninety minute work week can bring in $20 thousand in profits, in some cases.

With margins like that, it attracts quite a few motivated "entrepreneurs." of the worst kind.

If you sell anything online, you need to be aware of these fraudsters. Merchants can put plenty of preventative measures in place that will give fraudsters headaches.

E-commerce Fraudster Business Model

Just like every other industry, internet fraud has been benefiting from improvements in technology. Fraud benefits from AI and good data analytics as much as any other industry does. Off the shelf programs like Telegram and markets on the dark web where people sell lists of contact information give fraudsters the tools they need.
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Behind the Scenes of Fraudster Profits

There are markets on the dark web where people sell credit card details. People who know where to look can buy credit card details for around five dollars a piece. They use tools like Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, to conduct their communication and make transactions.

Like any other SAAS industry, e-commerce fraud has its own suite of subscription-based tools, like shopping bots or VPN services, that’ll cost fraudsters $20-$30 a month.

Fraudsters are also not immune to the influencer market, and they might sell the tips and tricks to new entrepreneurs breaking into the industry, as it were.

As with any enterprise, running frauds professionally has overhead. It’s a business conducted on the volume model, however, where the more you spend the more you make. Spending about $30k on tools and resources every week will gross an enterprising fraudster $50k. Netting $20k a week adds up to a million annually, at least. That’s a pretty attractive salary.
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Mainstream E-commerce Fraud

Between the increase in resources and the volatility of the global economic climate, e-commerce fraud is a more attractive career path than it has ever been. There is also a cultural element. Internet fraud is often shown as a victimless crime in popular media. As a result, there is a rise in internet fraud every year.

The behaviors aren’t consistent, though. Generally, you will see a spike in fraud that ends up corresponding to cracks in security that either nobody had the knowledge or technology to take advantage of yet. Usually, security audits will turn up and correct these cracks quickly.
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E-commerce Fraud Prevention

Since it is so easy, relatively speaking, to commit fraud, businesses of any kind that rely on online credit card transactions need a strong and nimble anti-fraud strategy in order to stay ahead of the hostiles out there.

The best strategies are built on good data, then implemented with the right tools. There are smart people around who make it their business to know how to get that data and use those tools—people who know how to counteract fraudulent behaviors.

For every merchant there’s a bespoke anti-fraud strategy to detect even the most sophisticated patterns of risk. Gathering and organizing data from the larger ecosystems of e-commerce gives a merchant the tools necessary to build the strongest anti-fraud tactics they can.

The strongest strategies will include tools from every aspect of the business of defensive tactics. Machine learning will help, but the best tactics will include the human touch as well. Anti-fraud professionals have the experience and instincts necessary to evaluate what AI-driven tools can’t handle.

Your assets need the best defenses possible. We’d like to help you with that.
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