2021 Fraud Predictions – James Crawshaw, Risk & Analytics Solutions Manager

“We will see an increase in authorised push payment (APP) fraud through social media networks. As social media use increases and there is a notable increase in older users, who may be more susceptible to scams and less familiar with online security, fraudsters will target their victims through social media messaging. This new attack vector will be combined with an already evident in ‘romance’ scams, which came to prominence during an increasingly lonely lockdown for many people. APP is becoming much easier for fraudsters to achieve via these new channels.

Fuel card and e-toll fraud will continue to rise in 2021. We saw a rise in the fraudulent use of pre-paid tolls in 2020, if this is not counteracted at a machine level, it will almost certainly continue to increase in 2021. Many of the vulnerabilities in current systems remain, and the fraudsters will no doubt carry on where they left off after the Christmas holidays.

Online sales continue. 2020 has forced many retailers to change the way their businesses operate, including those who have either moved their business entirely online or have added an online sales channel to it. This will open them up to a whole new market of consumers, increasing their sales potential in the long run. With this different or increased revenue, when normal service resumes in 2021 many of these merchants could find themselves in violation of any current floor limits or sales stream agreements that they have in place with their current merchant services providers.”