As economic activity resumes, fraudsters shift focus to travel and leisure industry: Report
The study also said that some industries like telecommunication, retail and gambling saw a decline in fraud attempts
According to a report published on Monday, fraudsters have shifted their focus to target unsuspecting victims in travel and leisure, online forums and logistics sector. In India, digital fraud attempts have increased by 269% in the travel and leisure segment, followed by 267% in communities which includes online dating and 94% in logistics as compared to the same time period in the year ago period, the report from credit information company Transunion added. The company monitors digital fraud attempts after analysing data from over 40,000 websites and apps in its fraud analytics offerings to come up with the trends.
Credit cards fraud tops in travel and leisure
As countries began to open up more from their Covid-19 lockdowns in this quarter, travel and other leisure activities became more mainstream which made the industry a top target, the comoany said.
It also added that the pandemic accelerated community (online dating) and online retail transactions which require logistics, and fraudsters have noted this.
Fraudsters are looking to capitalise on the fact that more transactions return to the travel and leisure industry in India, post the unlocking of the country, the company said.
Credit cards related frauds are at the top in this industry, while profile misrepresentation was the most in the communties segment like dating, the report said. In the logistics sector it was shipping fraud which was the favourite among fraudsters.
The study also said that some industries like telecommunication (-96%), retail (-24.88%) and gambling (-31.53%) saw a decline in fraud attempts.