Suspected Digital Holiday Shopping Fraud Coming From Hong Kong Decreases 29% Compared to Last Year

TransUnion analyzes early holiday e-commerce fraud attempt rates

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) released new findings today around global e-commerce fraud trends that occurred during the busiest period of the 2021 holiday shopping season. The analysis found 17.46% of all global e-commerce transactions between Thurs., Nov. 25, and Cyber Monday, Nov. 29, were potentially fraudulent[1]. In Hong Kong, 20.47% were suspected fraudulent during that same period and including Double Eleven Shopping Festival, Nov. 11.

The global percentage of suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions is 3.74% higher than the same five-day period leading up to Cyber Monday last year. For transactions originating from Hong Kong, the percentage decreased 29.20% in the same timeframe plus Nov.11. These findings are based on intelligence from billions of transactions, and more than 40,000 websites and apps contained in TransUnion’s fraud analytics solution suite — TruValidate™,.

The analysis also observed the top two reasons globally for potentially fraudulent e-commerce transactions in the five days leading up to Cyber Monday. The top reason was the number of accounts per device – which triggers when a device has accessed the minimum number of accounts during the set time period. The second was evidence exists – which occurs when an account or device has previously had a fraudulent transaction.

Percentage of Suspected Fraudulent E-Commerce Transactions during Holiday Shopping Weekend

Source: TransUnion’s quarterly analysis of global online fraud trends

“The holiday shopping season is a popular time globally for bad actors to engage in fraudulent activity, particularly in the e-commerce and retail industry,” said Jerry Ying, Chief Product Officer of TransUnion APAC. “Despite the decline of suspected digital fraud originating from Hong Kong during the traditional busiest days of the holiday shopping season, levels are still above the global average and occurred as consumers express concern about being victimized. According to TransUnion’s Q4 Consumer Pulse Study, 84% of Hong Kong consumers are concerned with being victimized by online fraud this holiday season. It is imperative that those businesses equip themselves with the proper tools to detect fraud at the first warning sign without inhabiting the consumer journey.”

In addition to the above findings, TransUnion released the following fraud analysis for Hong Kong regarding the percentage of suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2019 to 2021.

• 20.47% from Nov. 25 – 29 plus Nov. 11, 2021; 26.30% so far in 2021
• 28.91% from Nov. 26 – 30 plus Nov. 11, 2020; 41.34% in 2020
• 20.81% from Nov. 28 – Dec. 2 plus Nov. 11, 2019; 8.02% in 2019

Percentage of Suspected E-Commerce Fraud – Holiday Season vs. Overall

 Source: TransUnion’s quarterly analysis of global online fraud trends

To find out how this data varies by select countries and regions, how mobile is playing a large part in digital holiday fraud, what days during the holiday shopping season are most popular for fraud and more, TransUnion’s holiday fraud trends can be found here.