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Delaware ranks at or near the top in Internet (E-commerce) fraud, according to a report from credit reporting service Experian.
The company analyzed millions of E-commerce transactions from 2015 data to identify fraud attackrates across the United States for both shipping and billing locations.
“Fraud follows the path of least resistance. With more shipping and billing options available to create a better customer experience, criminals attempt to exploit any added convenience,” said Adam Fingersh, Experian general manager and senior vice president of Fraud & Identity Solutions. “E-commerce fraud is not confined to larger cities since fraudsters can ship items anywhere.
Billing states are associated with fraud victims (the address of the purchaser), and shipping states are associated with fraudsters (the address where purchased goods are sent). Delaware ranks near the top in both categories.
According to the 2015 e-commerce attack rate data:
- Florida is the overall riskiest state for billing fraud, followed by Delaware; Washington, D.C.; Oregon and California.
- Delaware is the overall riskiest state for shipping fraud, followed by Oregon, Florida, California and Nevada.
- Eudora, Kan., has the overall riskiest billing ZIP Code (66025). The next two riskiest ZIP codes are located in Miami, Fla. (33178) and Boston, Mass. (02210).
- South El Monte, Calif., has the overall riskiest shipping ZIP Code (91733). The next four riskiest shipping ZIP codes are all located in Miami.
- Overall, five of the top 10 riskiest shipping ZIP codes are located in Miami.
- Defiance, Ohio, has the least risky shipping ZIP Code (43512).
The majority of U.S. states are at or below the average attack rate threshold for both shipping and billing fraud, with only seven states — Florida, Oregon, Delaware, California, New York, Georgia and Nevada — and Puerto Rico ranking higher than average.
This indicates that attackers are targeting consumers equally in the higher-risk states while leveraging addresses from both higher- and lower-risk states to ship and receive fraudulent merchandise, according to commentary from Experian.
Many of the higher-risk states are located near a large port-of-entry city, including Miami; Portland, Ore.; and Washington, D.C., perhaps allowing criminals to move stolen goods more effectively. All three cities are ranked among the riskiest cities for both measures of fraud attacks.
Neighboring proximity to higher-risk states does not appear to correlate with any additional risk — Pennsylvania, which borders Delaware and Rhode Island are ranked as two of the lower-risk states for both shipping and billing fraud.
Click here for further information on the study.
