CRIF AG has carried out a survey of Swiss online and mail-order companies on the subject of fraud, in collaboration with the Handelsverband.Swiss trade association. 86.5% of all the traders questioned declared that they had been affected by fraud on at least one occasion in the past. 41.7% of those questioned reported either an increase or even a sharp increase in attempts at fraud compared with 2021. For 50% of those questioned, nothing much had changed in this regard since the previous year.
Increase in the levels of loss
The majority of those questioned, i.e. 57.4%, estimated that the maximum sum they had lost within the past 12 months would have amounted to under CHF 5,000. However, individual losses of between CHF 5,000 and CHF 10,000 had tripled in comparison with 2021, and losses amounting to over CHF 100,000 had doubled in that time.
Types of fraud
The type of fraud most frequently encountered involves people who order goods even though they know in advance that they cannot pay for them, as well as people who buy goods using forged details, or using an alternative identity, or an identity that is completely false.
Traders are increasingly outsourcing their fraud prevention measures
88.5% of the traders we questioned stated that they implement fraud detection procedures. Over 67% of the traders check any suspicious orders manually. This is an increase of over 13% in comparison with the previous year. A variety of blacklists and fraud filters are also popular in the battle against fraud. In last year’s survey, 28.6% of the traders we questioned indicated that they undertook fraud prevention measures in collaboration with external service providers; this year, the same metric had risen to almost 42.9%.
Over 80% of respondents stated that the number of fraud attempts had fallen, thanks to the use of methods for the detection of fraud.
According to Patrick Kessler, President of Handelsverband.Swiss, “The ability to purchase on account is still a driver of sales for online traders. A professional credit rating and fraud management system is therefore essential to any digital trader’s “hygiene” routine. Any online trader who tries to save money and fails to take this matter seriously is taking major risks with regard to payment defaults”.
Daniel Gamma, Director of E-Commerce at CRIF, adds that “The fact that so many online shops check suspicious orders manually is astonishing. These days, there are a wide variety of different options on offer to protect businesses against fraud. In particular, too few people are still aware that you can outsource the entire fraud prevention effort to an external service provider”.
The full study can be requested from presse.ch@crif.com.
