Payment fraud: How to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions

On March 28, 193 AD, Rome's Praetorian Guard (an elite force of spies and bodyguards) auctioned off the title of 'Emperor of Rome' for the modern equivalent of about £50 million. The problem was, they didn't own the title. They accepted payment for something they had no right to sell making it one of the earliest recorded cases of payment fraud.

In some ways, we've come a long since then; in other ways we haven't. While it might be harder to fraudulently sell off an entire Empire, the rise of ecommerce has made other types of payment fraud easier to commit. This has been exacerbated in recent years thanks to the pandemic driving more business online. As a result, payments fraud statistics show that 74% of organisations were victims of attempted or actual payments fraud in 2020.

Payment fraud has also been inadvertently helped along by advancements in technology designed to making paying easier. One-click payments streamline the process but it becomes harder to spot and stop fraud. And the dark web provides a wealth of resources for fraudsters to scale their attacks. During 2020 alone, 115 million stolen debit and credit card details were posted on the dark web.

But what can help, can also hinder; technology plays an important role in the prevention of fraud as well. And, while payment fraud can be found everywhere, it's most prevelant online - which is where we'll focus in this article. But first: