How eCommerce brands can fight fraud and improve their customer experience

Summary

Connected devices have become an unusually attractive target for fraud, combining rapid, repeat-purchase demand with a price point that makes theft and resale worthwhile at scale. Fraudsters exploit the very policies designed to create a smooth buying experience, and customer support teams have become an underused line of defence against them.

Three distinct fraud types face device makers: credit card fraud using stolen or counterfeit payment details, warranty fraud involving false claims of faulty or missing products, and reseller fraud that exploits discount codes to acquire and resell devices through unauthorised channels. Each carries distinct financial and reputational consequences, compounding pressure on pricing and innovation across the industry as a whole.

Central to countering this is how customer support interactions generate the small behavioural clues that, when aggregated and analysed properly, can reveal a fraud ring's operating pattern before it causes significant damage. Artificial intelligence adds value in flagging suspicious transactions, though human judgement and contextual experience remain essential to avoid falsely penalising legitimate customers in the process.

• How outsourced fraud teams accumulate cross-account experience that shortens the time needed to reach full effectiveness
• The economic pressure eCommerce sales growth places on fraud detection capacity

Why do so few device makers build the dedicated fraud detection capability their exposure actually requires?