During the 2016 holiday weekend, global online sales have seen a significant nudge upwards. At the same time, payment card fraud increased by a whopping 20%. Consumer’s financial details are always at risk when dealing with payment cards these days. Bitcoin is a far safer option, as there is no sensitive personal information leaked during the transaction process.

The rise in payment fraud during the 2016 holiday shopping season is not surprising. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw an influx of global customers. However, this transaction volume makes it harder to determine which transactions are legitimate. But the concerns ago much deeper, as five types of fraud reports were filed.

First of all, there is credit card fraud. Everyone knows payment cards are inherently insecure, and provide significant risks to both owner and retailer. Very few companies perform thorough checks of payment card data when processing an order, making life easier for criminals shopping online.

Bitcoin Remains The Safe Way To Shop Online

Identity theft is another major concern, particularly during the holiday season. Vast amounts of personal information are floating around on the Internet, and criminals will sniff out sensitive details with relative ease. Thanks to email scams, which complete the top three, users are often tricked into giving up that type of information as well.

Promotion abuse is another popular trend, although its impact can often be negated. Users will experience annoyance through this type of fraud, but it should not affect them in a significant manner. Account takeover, on the other hand, is far more troublesome. Hacked social media profiles become far more common during the holiday season. Mostly due to consumers being more careless with their passwords.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, mobile transactions were on the rise as well. Although mobile devices are commonly used for payments, they are not secure. Malware, scareware, and remote access trojans are just a few of the looming threats. Consumers storing payment information on these devices are at risk at any given time.

In the end, it goes to show traditional payment methods suffer from a lot of security issues. Bitcoin is a more secure solution, as no sensitive information can be obtained by analyzing transactions. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency is not as widespread when it comes to online shopping. But that situation can change at any given moment.

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