A study from Juniper Research predicts that the greatest merchant losses to fraud will be via remote physical goods purchases, with losses reaching $5.1 billion across emerging markets in 2028, up from $1 billion in 2023.

Juniper anticipates fraud losses in Africa & Middle East to reach $1.1 billion in 2028; growing 643% from $150 million this year. This is largely due to limited adoption of effective fraud prevention tools in the region. Such tools are needed to keep pace with the rapidly increasing number of transactions, evolving payment methods and growing threats.

The research recommended merchants in the region adopt fraud detection and prevention systems as a priority, or rapid eCommerce growth will translate into massive fraud growth; damaging merchant profitability.

The research urges players to implement AI for analysing trends in fraudster behaviour. This is important in emerging regions, as smartphone adoption causes mCommerce to grow at a rapid rate. Therefore, fraud detection and prevention vendors must utilise data collected throughout the whole eCommerce process to further train and develop their AI fraud detection and prevention models.

Research author Cara Malone said: “With the growing use of AI, it is increasingly important for fraud detection and prevention providers to educate their clients, as AI utilises a variety of data to examine patterns within fraud. AI is extremely advantageous in a space where fraudsters attack at scale, rather than attacking a specific customer.”

Image by THAM YUAN YUAN from Pixabay