UK online merchants are failing to track fraud

Just a quarter of UK online merchants are tracking fraud through their mobile sites, and at 16 per cent, even fewer are tracking electronic crime via their apps.

These are some of the findings in a new report from the Visa-owned CyberSource, a secure online payment company.

The report claims that UK online merchants are experiencing growth even in these gloomy economic times, but are failing to understand the risks presented by cyber crime.

"The mobile channel presents a real opportunity for merchants," said Dr Akif Khan, co-author of the report and director, products and services, CyberSource EMEA.

"With interfaces often streamlined to make mobile commerce simpler for the user, the fraud risks on mobile channels are different and still need to be properly understood.

"If fraud costs are to be managed efficiently across multiple channels in 2012, each should be measured and configured individually."

The report goes on to explain that the impact of fraud varies by sector. For both travel and services, the biggest concern is revenue loss.

Some 51 per cent of travel and 46 per cent of services vendors were most concerned by revenue loss as a potential consequence of fraud.

However, the same is not true in other sectors. Half of all physical goods retailers surveyed said that they are more concerned by declining genuine orders in the belief that they are fraudulent.

And 41 per cent of digital goods businesses suggested that the main challenge is the cost of manually reviewing too many orders.