THG Detect Shares Top Tips to Prevent Retail Fraud

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a surge in demand for online shopping. And, while the shift to ecommerce has proven successful for many retailers, the increase in volume means it has never been more vital for merchants to protect themselves and their customers from the risk of increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts. It’s a multi-million-pound problem annually shows no sign of slowing.

Of course, striking a balance between protecting revenue and limiting friction within a customer’s buying journey makes fraud prevention a highly complex process.

Experts in retail fraud at THG Detect, the award-winning fraud platform by THG Ingenuity, has rounded up some top tips to help retailers prevent fraud while continuing to drive sales.

• Utilise basic fraud controls that are provided to you by your payment provider – such as 3D secure – and ensure to reject all transactions from customers that do not pass a step-up authentication (mobile text message, email verification, etc.)
• Behavioural data is key to everything. Keep track of historical refunds from the same customer and same address to prevent future refund abuse.
• On a monthly basis, forecast the volume of transactions your business will receive based on past historical data. This will help to ensure that your business is better prepared to make accurate decisions in a timely manner, as opposed to making imprecise decisions due to being overwhelmed by increased volume.
• Analyse your chargeback data to spot key trends. You can do this by setting up a tracker or a report which will alert you to customers who are frequently committing chargeback fraud. Subsequently, look to ‘blacklist’ these customers to prevent further chargeback abuse.
• Build a robust relationship with your courier service to ensure items are delivered with photo and signature evidence from the customer. This is especially the case if you’re shipping internationally. Ensure to discontinue the shipment of an order that may be in transit, if fraudulent activity is detected at a later stage.
• Consider working with an external fraud prevention provider that enables you to operate in a safe environment without the additional legwork. THG Detect uses machine learning, adaptive behavioural analytics, flexible rules engine, device fingerprinting, known fraud database and identity verification to complete a suite of tools that increase fraud safety.

Looking ahead, as online shopping continues to grow apace, fraud prevention will only become a bigger and more critical issue for retailers to tackle head-on.

Find out more about THG Ingenuity’s anti-fraud capabilities and tips for preventing the issue during peak trading periods and beyond by watching the company’s recent webinar on the topic.