Holiday Fraud Concerns during Pandemic Come True

TransUnion research finds 435% rise in suspected 2020 holiday weekend e-commerce fraud coming from Canada compared to 2019; mirrors recent TransUnion survey where 50% of consumers expressed concern about being victimized by holiday fraud

TORONTO, Dec. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) today released new findings around online retail trends during the start of the 2020 global holiday shopping season. The research shows a 435.2% increase in suspected online retail fraud¹ coming from Canada during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season compared to the same period in 2019. The findings are based on the online transactions TransUnion analyzed for its customers utilizing identity and authentication products during the traditional start of the global holiday shopping season, U.S. Thanksgiving (Nov. 26) to Cyber Monday (Nov. 30).

Heading into the holiday shopping season, the TransUnion Financial Hardship Study conducted from Oct. 28 to Nov. 5 found 32% of 1,100 Canadian consumers surveyed said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19, a 14% increase from the same survey the week of April 13, 2020.

"With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the move from offline to online transactions, detecting digital fraud attempts has become paramount for e-commerce providers," said Anne-Marie Kelly, vice president of Market Development, Identity Management and Fraud Solutions at TransUnion. "In order to avoid cart abandonment with all of these new sales opportunities, it is equally if not more important to ensure consumers are able to make friction-right digital transactions."

In addition to the above findings, TransUnion released the following fraud trends:

• The percent of suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions coming from Canada during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2018 to 2020.
  • 11.58% from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30, 2020. 9.89% so far in 2020.
  • 2.16% from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, 2019. 6.41% all of 2019.
  • 8.61% from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26, 2018. 8.13% all of 2018.

• The days with the highest percent of suspected fraudulent transactions coming from Canada during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season are:
  1. Cyber Monday, Nov. 30: 35.03%
  2. Sunday, Nov. 29: 6.04%
  3. U.S. Thanksgiving, Nov. 26: 2.84%
  4. Black Friday, Nov. 27: 2.14%
  5. Saturday, Nov. 28: 1.67%

For an infographic about TransUnion's holiday online retail findings globally, go here.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.® TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people in more than 30 countries. Our customers in Canada comprise some of the nation's largest banks and card issuers, and TransUnion is a major credit reporting, fraud, and analytics solutions provider across the finance, retail, telecommunications, utilities, government and insurance sectors.

¹ Suspected fraudulent and risky transactions are those that TransUnion's customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators