Surveys Report Show Varying Results in Risk Detection Preparedness among Mobile-Accepting Merchants

Monday, October 30th, 2017

Technology is making work easier for merchants and consumers. And the use of Smartphones to pay for goods after shopping online is a noteworthy game-changer? And currently, most merchants in the payment business are allowing Mobile high risk payments and making remarkable progress in handling this new-fangled payment method. However, a good number is still lagging behind in major areas like the capability to spot transactions from abroad— a risk that could lead to losses in the event of an attack by fraudsters.

Risk-detection remains a sticking point drawing mixed results from different studies. Just five years ago, over 55 percent of retailers that accepted mobile payments couldn’t tell whether a particular transaction was initiated using a mobile device. A number that has currently dropped to 14 percent as reported by a survey funded by Kount Inc. a top risk-management firm. Conversely, a whole 28 percent of mobile-accepting retailers cannot detect a mobile transaction initiated by a user from overseas.

This survey featured over 800 merchants across 29 industries and went down for three months (April to June). To ensure all businesses sizes are covered, retailers earning from below $5 million to those over $500 million in returns. Other primary contributors to the “2017 Mobile Payments & Fraud Survey” include CardNotPresent.com, the Fraud Practice Inc and Braintree.

All said, up to 44 percent of the retailers surveyed are now contented with a mobile app designed to ease the online shopping process. This figure has gone up from the 21 percent reported in 2013 when the first study was carried out. On the other hand, 15 to 29 percent of mobile-accepting merchants still prefer point of sale payments.

On the question of which is the “safest” mobile-payment tech in the market, the renowned Apple is still leading at 61 percent. Blackberry and Android follow distantly with each at 3.7% and lastly Windows at 1.4%.

What Now

Generally high risk mobile payments are now a well accepted option among merchants. However, some will need to augment their risk detection to avoid fraudulent transactions as this method is a common target for internet tricksters.