The global digital fraud rate decreased in the first quarter of 2022 with suspected online fraud attempts declining by 22.6% from the first quarter of 2021, according to TransUnion’s quarterly digital fraud analysis.
The analysis based on data from billions of transactions of the two quarters revealed that the suspected fraud rate year-over-year declined in industries such as financial services, telecommunications and retail while fraudsters significantly increased their scams in sectors such as insurance, gambling and logistics.
The financial services industry saw the largest y-o-y decrease in the suspected digital fraud attempt rate by 56.6%. Certain business sectors, however, were more prone to digital fraud attempts with insurance industry registering a growth of 134% in the first quarter of 2022. The logistics industry followed with a growth of 45.9%.
Sophisticated fraudsters pressure test which industries have ramped up fraud prevention measures and as a result, turn to new industries if efforts are being thwarted.
In a related revelation the recent TransUnion Consumer Pulse Survey, a global survey of 10,391 participants, found that consumers say they are being targeted less with digital fraud.
The survey conducted in February 2022 found that 36% had been targeted by digital fraud in the last three months compared to 38% the previous quarter. Of those consumers that had been targeted, phishing scams were most common (31%) followed by money/gift card scams (28%) and third-party seller scams on legitimate online retail sites (23%). M