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New Outseer Fraud & Payments Report Shows Giant Increase in Brand Abuse Cyber Attacks, Jumping 274% Year-over-Year

Worldwide 3-D Secure transaction volume accelerates further, increasing 50% year-over-year

Outseer, the leader in payment authentication and monitoring solutions, has published its latest quarterly Fraud & Payments report, confirming a troubling and massive spike in worldwide brand abuse attacks. The Q4 instalment of the report features insights from July through September of 2021 as captured through the Outseer Global Data Network™, and collected while authenticating consumer transactions and investigating threats on behalf of Outseer customers.

According to the report, Brand Abuse attacks have continued to dominate fraud actor tactics, growing 274% in Q3 2021 annually and comprising 45% of all attacks detected and investigated by the Outseer Anti-Fraud Command Centre. Organisations are strongly advised to employ monitoring services that rapidly detect, investigate, and take down these scams that impersonate authentic brand websites, mobile apps, and social media profiles.

As card-not-present (CNP) digital payments registered explosive growth throughout 2021, 3-D Secure transaction volume also scaled across every region. In the first three quarters of 2021, 3-D Secure transactions grew nearly 50% compared to the same time period in 2020. According to a recently published study by Aite-Novarica group, 69% of the 756 merchants surveyed claimed they are currently using 3-D Secure as a payment authentication method, with the majority attributing their usage of 3-D Secure “to lower fraud losses” and “increased authorisation approval rates.”

“As consumer buying behaviour has shifted to a digital-first experience throughout this seemingly endless pandemic, newer payment models and transaction methods continue to proliferate,” said Armen Najarian, CMO and Chief Identity Officer at Outseer. “It should come as no surprise that payment transaction fraud has skyrocketed to new heights. This is particularly evident in regions where 3-D Secure as the go-to payment authentication method has not been widely adopted yet. This report validates that every digital business must prioritise strong and effective fraud prevention measures like 3-D Secure in order to protect their brand and their customers.”

Other notable insights from the Q4 Outseer Fraud & Payments Report include:

 

  • More than 56,000 global cyber attacks during the quarter
  • 68% of digital banking fraudulent transactions originated on mobile
  • Rogue Mobile Apps showed a 50% quarterly increase vs. Q2 2021
  • The United States has remained the top hosting country for phishing attacks in Q3 2021, accounting for 73% of ISPs hosting these types of attacks.
    • India remains in second place, responsible for 6% of phishing attacks
    • Russian hosted attacks phishing attacks jumped 42% from Q2 2021
  • In the first three quarters of 2021 alone, Outseer recovered over 12.9 million unique compromised cards and card previews from online stores and fraud communication channels. On average, more than 48,000 cards were recovered daily in 2021.

Download the Q4 2021 Outseer Fraud & Payments report here: https://outseer.com/fraud-report-q4-2021/

 

About Outseer

Outseer, an RSA Company, empowers the digital economy to grow by authenticating billions of transactions annually. Our payment and account monitoring solutions increase revenue and reduce customer friction for card issuing banks, payment processors, and merchants worldwide. Leveraging 20 billion annual transactions from 6,000 global institutions contributing to the Outseer Data Network, our identity-based science delivers the highest fraud detection rates and lowest customer intervention in the industry. See what others can’t at outseer.com