Online fraud warning signs revealed

Five tell-tale signs could alert online retailers to an attempted fraud in progress.

Through its online forum used by fraud managers at online businesses in the UK, 192.com Business Services has compiled a list of behaviours it claims can help companies spot when they might be about to transact with a fraudster.

The signs highlighted include changes to the delivery address between the order being placed and delivery.

Testing of card details on low value orders, followed by much larger orders, could also be another warning sign.

If the billing address is more than 50 miles from the delivery address it might be worth taking a closer look at the order, and 192.com Business Services said retailers it worked with also cite orders from the London postcode range SE28 as being ones they would treat with more care before they send out goods.

The final suspicious action flagged by the company is the use of free email addresses with little resemblance to the customer's name.

192.com Business Services product manager, Grant Greenwood, said: "We're putting hurdles in front of the fraudster - the more hurdles, the more likely they are to be tripped up."

Card-not-present fraud grew by 41 per cent between 2004 and 2006 according to recent Apacs figures.

Based on fraud reporting from UK fraud managers, the London postcode SE28 is the "most troublesome" for fraud and chargeback within the UK, alongside overseas destinations such as Estonia and Nigeria, according to 192.com.

silicon.com Retail & Leisure

Get the latest retail and leisure news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the R&L newsletter today!

But a spokesman added: "We don't and we can't generalise - we're just highlighting statistics based on our online forum."