In late 2020 Signifyd surveyed 3,000 consumers about their buying habits. The responses to the surveys conducted during the first two weeks of September were in sharp contrast to Signifyd’s pre-pandemic survey. In January, before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country and the world, only 8.1% of consumers said that they had made a false claim that an ecommerce order was never delivered in order to keep the product and land a refund. The survey from September revealed that over a third of participants admitted to committing ‘Friendly Fraud’.

Key findings

Key findings from the report include early 36% of UK consumers commit friendly fraud regarding missing packages; 32.1% of UK respondents admitted to breaking discount or promotion rules in order to receive a price break they were not entitled to; in the U.S. 40.3% of consumers said they asked for a refund because of a fraudulent charge when in fact they knew no fraud had been committed. In the UK, the number was 36.1%.

In the U.S, 60.4% of consumers said they would be spending less this year compared to 66.7% of UK respondents said they would be spending less due to the effects of COVID-19 on income. In the UK, 47.9% of respondents said a year from now they’d be shopping differently than they were a year ago, because they’d be relying more heavily on click-and-collect.

In the U.S., 60.1% said they expected to continue to more heavily use buy online, pick up in store or at the curb.
Full report: https://www.signifyd.com/blog/2020/09/29/friendly-fraud-rising-survey-says/

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