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E-crime poses a threat to UK retailers

E-crime is the biggest emerging threat to the retail sector, the British Retail Consortium has suggested.

The organisation’s first e-crime study, estimates the cost to retailers between 2011 and 2012 was at least £205.4m.

The BRC say e-crime is twice as costly as overall retail crime, and the costs of prevention, and legitimate business lost as a result of those measures, is serious.

Personal identification related frauds were seen as the most costly type of crime, causing £20m of losses between 2011 and 2012.

Card fraud followed this, causing £15m in losses during the same period, while refund frauds were responsible for £1.2m in losses.

Other areas of e-crime, such as phishing, present further problems for UK retailers, but remain hard to quantify.

Findings of the study suggest that preventative measures can discourage genuine customers, who become spooked by online security measures.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson, said: “The rapid growth of e-commerce in the UK shows it offers great benefits for customers but also new opportunities for criminals.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .