Black Friday Sees Alarming Levels of Attempted Online Fraud - up 40% From Last Year

NEW YORK and LONDON, December 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail Decisions (ReD) today reports that the online retail market experienced a staggering 40 percent increase(1) in attempted online fraud on one of the USA's busiest shopping days, Black Friday.

ReD, a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing, reports that its online retail clients saw an increase in attempted fraudulent activities. Furthermore, the value of fraudsters' attempted transactions increased to an average of $248, up on last year by 25%. The favorite items for the would-be fraudster included Virtual Gift Cards, Givenchy Perfume, Lancome and Estee Lauder Cosmetics. According to ReD, the most fraud prone US shipping and billing states were Florida and New York.

As a global leader in card fraud prevention, ReD monitors some 16 billion card transactions annually, providing a unique prospective on sales volumes and trends. Carl Clump, CEO at Retail Decisions states, "Forty percent uplift in attempted online card fraud is a dramatic increase. Retailers are being hit from all angles, with the economic downturn accompanied by an increase in attempted fraud. The damage from online fraud can be extensive to businesses, and its' reputation as well as hitting the bottom-line hard."

According to ReD, online shopper's busiest minute for its retail customers was Cyber Monday at 1.48 pm. Black Friday held onto the busiest hour between 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm, and the most popular selling gift items were Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS Display Screen, followed by Samsung Digital Camera, Kodak Digital Camera, Sanyo Xacti Digital Camera and GiiNii 8" Digital Photo Frame.

Note to Editors:

To find out more data, contact us for an interview with Carl Clump, CEO of retail decisions.

About Retail Decisions

Retail Decisions (ReD) is a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing. A specialist supplier to the payments industry worldwide, ReD has over 20 years experience in the fraud prevention market. Its blue-chip international clients come from the global telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, banking and the broader e-commerce sectors. They include Wal-Mart, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Sears, Tesco, Texaco, Shell, Asda, Boots, John Lewis, The Carphone Warehouse, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. The company has offices in the United States, UK, Mainland Europe, Australia, China and South Africa with representation in India, Japan, and South America.

More information about ReD please visit: http://www.redplc.com.

    
    CONTACTS

    Carl Clump,                        Gwyneth Pritchard, 
    Chief Executive Officer            Head of Group
    Marketing Retail Decision Ltd      Retail Decisions Ltd
    Tel: +44(0)1483-728700             Tel: +44(0)1483-794932
    Website: http://www.redplc.com     email: gpritchard@redplc.com,  

(1) According to ReD data, December 2008