How bad is online credit card fraud? (figures)

[luckystrike]

Does anyone have or knows of a site (or resource even if i have to pay) that displays current online credit card fraud rates from a client point of view? I'm doing my thesis and am interested on the mental and physical 'suffering' that clients endure after having their credit card details stolen online.

Any help would be appreciated.

Dan

[lgn1]

It all depends what you sell. The more niche specific, and less trendy the article, the lower the fraud rate. I fit into this category, and my charge back rate is less than one tenth of 1%.

Now if you were selling tobacco, porn, and fully automatic deer assault rifles (only available in the USA), then I would expect a high fraud rate.

If its a vice, expensive, and easy to pawn, then it will incur a high chargeback rate.

[SkyDog]

Fraud is rampant, but it has tell tale signs and is detectable. Big ticket orders, different shipping and billing addresses, etc. If someone order 5 or more of a certain product or orders way beyond what would be expected, that should bring up a red flag.

[topr8]

>>>mental and physical 'suffering' that clients endure after having their credit card details stolen online.

not that i know of, however, the issue really affects merchants not clients, for a client it is easy to get all the money recovered they just phone up the credit card company and report the fraud.

... it is the merchant who actually misses out and looses money.

[topr8]

i'd dig around on google using terms such as...

card cloning victim

[netguy]

Luckystrike, the mental and physical 'suffering' would be more for people who have had their 'identities' stolen - not simply access to their credit card or card numbers.

Identity theft is where a criminal gets access to a person's social security number, birth certificate, driver's license, etc - not just a credit card. This takes fraud (and the suffering) to a whole new level when the crooks can re-route your mail, finance a new car or home, and completely ruin your credit rating. Identity theft can also take several years to unwind.

As topr8 mentioned, simply having a card stolen puts more burden on the merchant than the cardholder. The cardholder is fully protected by law (in many countries). It's the merchant that gets the chargeback if the card is shown to be used fraudulently.

Steve

<added>While banks constantly complain of 'billion dollar' fraud losses, I can't see where they have lost a nickel on stolen credit cards - but the merchants certainly do.</added>