Payment Fraud Fears Grow During Pandemic

Consumer anxiety around payment fraud rose significantly as the coronavirus pandemic forced more consumers online, according to a new survey.

The poll of 2,000 consumers across the US and UK was commissioned by the global card issuing platform Marqeta, and asked about consumer attitudes towards payment fraud post-pandemic.

It found that two thirds – 65% – are more concerned about it now than before Covid-19 hit.

A further quarter of all people surveyed admitted that they had been victims of fraud within the last 12 months, representing a 25% increase when compared with the previous year.

“The population feels more exposed now than before Covid-19, in turn making consumers more hesitant to try new payments technologies. It’s forcing financial services to step up both the fraud services they offer and how they communicate them to their customers,” said Vidya Peters, chief marketing officer at Marqeta.

“With anxiety soaring, there’s an opportunity for banks and payments innovators to ease tensions with stronger fraud prevention controls, including those provided by modern card issuing platforms today.”

Consumers have been faced with unparalleled levels of disruption throughout the pandemic forcing them to make more digital payments.

Banks started to rapidly adopt and improve their automation tools to interact with the growing numbers of online customers. New technologies such as mobile apps, recommendation engines, contactless payment cards, robotic process automation (RPA) for loan, credit card, brokerage, and insurance applications and digital verification for onboarding were implemented.

However, as financial institutions worked tirelessly to build these expanded digital services, cybercriminals have exploited short comings in the infrastructure.

There has also been a marked rise those that have reported having their debit card information stolen. The survey found this area of fraud has increased more than 20%.

Similarly, the numbers of those who have had their personal information stole and used to open fake accounts is also on the up. The survey found this to have more than doubled, from 9% in 2020 to 20% this year.