--- title: How has online payment fraud against grocery platforms evolved? date: 2023-09-07T09:30:00+01:00 author: Ravelin Technology canonical_url: "https://www.ravelin.com/blog/online-grocery-platform-fraud" section: Blog --- Blog /[Machine learning & AI](/resources?search=&category%5B0%5D=134549#resourceContainer "Go to Machine learning & AI"), [Payments & payment fraud](/resources?search=&category%5B0%5D=189241#resourceContainer "Go to Payments & payment fraud"), [Fraud trends](/resources?search=&category%5B0%5D=201169#resourceContainer "Go to Fraud trends"), [Promo abuse](/resources?search=&category%5B0%5D=244453#resourceContainer "Go to Promo abuse") # How has online payment fraud against grocery platforms evolved? Online payment fraud is one of the biggest threats facing grocery merchants. And it’s only gotten worse. How are fraudsters using the cost of living crisis to take advantage of your business? 07 September 2023 ![How has online payment fraud against grocery platforms evolved?](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/_blogSmall/187988/238_Grocery_blog_-_Online_Payment_Fraud_Blog_885x505_%E2%80%93_1.webp) Fraudsters are constantly finding ways to commit fraud and slip under your radar. What's more, bad faith actors are using the dark web to communicate and share methods. [Over 60% of shoppers](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/09/06/consumers-concerned-fraud/) see fraud as an inevitable risk of shopping online. And online payment fraud is the fraud threat that won't seem to go away. Unfortunately, the issue has only been exaggerated by the cost of living crisis. But why should your grocery business be particularly concerned? We’ll cover the methods fraudsters are using to hit the grocery industry and how your business can tackle them. ## How are criminals committing fraud against online grocery shops? Online fraud against grocery platforms takes many forms, including [account takeover](https://www.ravelin.com/insights/account-takeover-fraud), [payment fraud](https://www.ravelin.com/insights/online-payment-fraud), card testing, promo abuse, [refund abuse](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/refund-abuse-return-fraud) and more. Let's take a closer look at some of these. ### 1. They’ve upgraded their phishing scams Everyone has receive a dodgy email at least once. The signs tend to be obvious: email addresses and domain names that don’t match, grammar and spelling errors, etc. The problem is that fraudsters are getting smarter. And they’re exploiting your customers’ financial anxieties by posing as genuine merchants. [Supermarkets have been getting spoofed](https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/costofliving) in fake online ads claiming to offer deals and discounts. [Asda and Morrisons customers](https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/asda-morrisons-warning-over-online-5352315) were sent texts claiming their orders were on the way and all they had to do was click a link to track their purchase. In both cases, these customers were pushed to phony third-party where their credentials were stolen. Tactics like using compromised email domains to send phishing emails help them avoid getting labelled as spam. The Asda and Morrison's smishing (SMS fishing) scammers told customers that there was a delivery note for their order to further convince them to click the link. ![login online payment fraud](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/234-Grocery-eBook-Seizing-control-of-accounts-internal-blog-image.png)### 2. They’re using your stores for card-testing fraud Grocery stores are seen as easy avenues for card-testing fraud because of the low friction checkout process. Fraudsters can put in an order using a compromised credit card and see if it goes through to verify if the card can be used for more purchases. ## Why is online payment fraud a threat to your business? **You lose revenue:** Chargebacks are a major fallout from online payment fraud. When a customer notices a charge they didn’t make, they’ll inevitably dispute it with their bank. Chargeback fees can cost anywhere from [$20 to $100](https://www.chargebackgurus.com/blog/chargeback-fees-the-true-cost-of-your-chargebacks), depending on the agreement you’ve made with your enquirer. You also lose expenses in transaction fees, operational overheads, and marketing costs. **You could get penalized:** Too many chargebacks can result in your business getting penalized. Visa and Mastercard both have [chargeback thresholds](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/visa-vamp-changes-chargeback-disputes). Payment service providers (PSP) apply restrictions and added fees if your business exceeds these limits. The worst case scenario is you can lose the ability to process credit card payments altogether. ## Why is online payment fraud tricky to combat? ### You don’t want to disrupt customer journeys More security steps may seem like a quick-win to ensure that a customer is who they say they are. But this can be incredibly frustrating to a genuine customer. Even to the point of them abandoning their carts. With more competitors in your space to reckon with than ever, you don’t want to give customers any reason to leave! ### You risk penalizing genuine customers A [risk threshold](https://www.ravelin.com/insights/machine-learning-for-fraud-detection#settingtherightriskthres) that’s too high could open your business to more fraud. But a fraud threshold that’s too low can end up blocking genuine purchases. Online merchants have called out that [false positives](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/how-do-we-build-a-machine-learning-model) have proven to be a big problem because it loses them legitimate sales. ## How can grocery platforms tackle online fraud? ### Monitor customer activity A fraudster is highly unlikely to have the same personal information as the actual account holder. Suspicious behavior like a change in delivery address could point to a fraudster trying to pull a fast one. ### Understand how a genuine customer behaves Fraudsters quickly become easier to spot when you know how genuine customers interact with your business. Machine learning models can quickly pick out the differences and similarities between behaviors and use this to predict fraud in future transactions. ### Talk to your peers Fraudsters rarely act alone and tend to target one business after another. Communicating with other merchants helps [establish fraudulent patterns and trends more efficiently](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/why-is-payment-fraud-so-persistent). ### Visualize your data Graph networks help map out the [links and connections](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/connect-ravelin-graph-database-network-analysis-link-analysis) in your customer database, quickly uncovering any cases of online payment fraud. For example, fraudsters tend to create new accounts to make new orders with stolen card details. So you may see one device being used to open lots of new accounts in a short space of time, as below. A graph network can visualize this in an easy-to-understand way that helps your fraud teams recognize fraud attacks faster. ![graph network for retail grocery fraud](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/OnlinePaymentFraud_2023-09-07-152517_hxiz.png)# Fight the rise of fraud against online grocery [More than half of UK shoppers](https://spryker.com/press-release-uk-online-grocery-report-2022/) go online to buy at least some of their groceries, while 16% do so for all or most of their groceries. You need to ensure that you business and bottom line are protected as more customers move their regular shopping online. Ravelin can be your trusted partner in beating fraud as a busy grocery marketplace – even including [partner fraud](https://www.ravelin.com/solutions/marketplace-fraud). ![Ravelin Logo](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/ravelin-symbol-logo-transparent.webp) ## Stay up to speed Get the latest reports, analysis and advice on fraud, payments and growing securely online in your inbox. Subscribe ## Author ![Ravelin Technology](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/_avatarSmall/187712/Ravelin-Symbol-Blue-1.webp) Ravelin Technology Press releases, announcements and official updates from Ravelin Technology. [More from this author](https://www.ravelin.com/author/ravelin-technology) ## Related content [Blog / Payments & payment fraud ### Card payment liability shift – everything you need to know to reduce chargeback burden The knowledge you need to make the most of liability shifts and reap the benefits for your company – including saving money on chargebacks. ![Freddie burgess](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/_33x33_crop_center-center_none_ns/281707/freddie-burgess.webp)Freddie Burgess,Senior Product Support Analyst](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/card-payment-liability-shift-for-chargebacks) [Blog / Fraud analytics ### Refund abuse KPIs: How to measure and reduce refund fraud rates What you need to know to assess and quantify refund abuse – as well as to measure whether your refund abuse solution and strategy are delivering results. ![Can](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/_33x33_crop_center-center_none_ns/280078/can.webp)Can Colak,Senior Product Manager](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/how-to-measure-refund-abuse-kpis) [Blog / Press release ### Driven by AI, customers now rival criminals for ecommerce fraud, say merchants Global ecommerce fraud enters a new phase as losses continue to climb. Merchants now view criminals and their own customers as presenting a comparable risk, and there's a gap in AI adoption. ![Ravelin Symbol Blue 1](https://storage.googleapis.com/ravelin-website-assets-production/assets/images/_33x33_crop_center-center_none_ns/187712/Ravelin-Symbol-Blue-1.webp)Ravelin Technology](https://www.ravelin.com/blog/ravelin-fraud-survey-2026-press-release)