LONDON, October 23 /PRNewswire/ --     It's official. British shoppers have embraced online shopping
more than ever before. Online fraud prevention experts Retail Decisions
(ReD), who touch in excess of 14 billion transaction a year, have released
data from their large bank of UK online retailer clients, showing that online
retail volumes last week were up an astonishing 88% compared with the same
period in 2006. This indicates that perhaps time starved consumers are
looking online to find the perfect presents for their family and friends.

Unfortunately, card fraudsters have taken to online shopping with even 
more gusto than the average British consumer. Over the same period, the 
number of attempted fraud incidents within the online retail sector rose
at an even quicker pace - up a whopping 131%. Moreover, when criminals shop
online, they tend to make more extravagant purchases. The average attempted
fraudulent transaction is almost GBP525, compared with an average of less
than GBP200 for genuine shoppers.

What type of products do online fraudsters favour? They are typically the 
very latest high-value, electronic goods and luxury goods such as mobile 
phones, luxury handbags and iPods as these tend to be fairly easy to sell on 
at a good resale value on the black market and on ebay. The phone of choice 
for criminals in September was the Samsung U600 - an incredible 46.7% of all 
online sales seen by ReD for this item were fraud attempts.

"Our retailers cite the iPhone as one of the must-have products for this 
Christmas and at ReD, our risk analysts will monitor purchasing patterns of 
this item with an extra level of vigilance". said Carl Clump, CEO of Retail 
Decisions. "Other current popular targets on the top of the fraudsters 
shopping list we are seeing at the moment are gift cards, the LG Shine 
Mobile, Nintendo DS Lite Consoles and the Apple iPod Video (30GB)."

Why is online crime outpacing the overall rise in transaction
growth? There are a number of reasons for this. One of the key factors is
that so-called bricks-and-mortar retail shops have become more secure,
forcing fraudsters online. Paradoxically, the successful roll-out of Chip &
Pin in 2005 closed down many opportunities for criminals to carry out illegal
transactions in the UK high street, forcing them instead to try their luck at
card-not-present channels, notably the internet, mail order and telephone
order. At the same time, highly organized gangs share stolen card records and
use technology to allow them to generate false consumer details in an
automated fashion and then automate the generation of these transactions at
web stores. Another development in criminals' favour is the increased
availability of goods on the internet with short delivery times. This enables
fraudsters to acquire a wide range of goods in as quick a time as possible
before the e-tailer has the time to check the validity of the transaction.

Luckily for shoppers, savvy retailers work with fraud prevention experts 
like ReD to stop attempted online fraud from being successful. For example, 
technology from ReD, is able to identify each month which are the most 
fraudulent originating countries outside of the UK and share these with its 
retailing clients. In September the top such country was the US, followed by 
Ireland, Germany, Spain and France. Similarly, ReD is able to quickly 
identify the most popular country of issue for fraudulent cards used to 
attack UK online retailers as well as the extent to which this changes over 
time. In September 2007, for example, fraudulent non-UK cards were most 
likely to have been issued in France, followed by the US, Ireland, Norway 
and Germany. Retailers are now also able to identify the UK post codes to 
which fraudulent deliveries are most likely to be sent. For example, SE is
the most fraudulent delivery area (this area of London accounts for 5% of all
UK online fraud.) Other high-risk delivery areas include RM (Romford), E1
(East London), IG (Ilford) and SW (South West London). For their part,
consumers should continue to shop with online retailers who have enacted
robust security systems.

About Retail Decisions

Retail Decisions (ReD) is a payment card issuer and world leader in card 
fraud prevention and payment processing. A specialist supplier to the 
payments industry worldwide, ReD has over 19 years experience in the
fraud prevention market. Its blue-chip international clients come from the
global telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, logistics, banking and
the broader e-commerce sectors. They include Wal-Mart, Macy's, 
Bloomingdale's, Tesco, Texaco, Shell, Asda, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and
Virgin Mobile. Based in the UK, the company has offices in the United States,
Australia and South Africa with representation in Japan and South America.
More information about ReD is available at http://www.redplc.com.

Website: http://www.redplc.com