AUSTRIA Increase in Fraud YoY

Card Not Present and ID Fraud Continue to Grow

Fraud losses in Austria have been steadily increasing over the last 16 years, in the last five years we can see a significant change in the drivers. As expected, forms of card-present fraud have been on a continuous decline as Austria (amongst many other European countries) have increasingly adopted contactless and/or digital payment methods in lieu of cash – a move further accelerated by Covid lockdowns and regulations in 2020 and 2021.

has a continuing upwards trend of ID fraud in recent years; losses to ID fraud in 2021 came in at €2.3M, which is remarkably close to the €2.8M lost to CNP fraud. If we look beyond cards to the broader European fraud landscape, fraudsters are increasingly focused upon digital channels, either to exploit customer funds or to apply for credit with stolen or synthetic identities.

Could Austria’s card losses in this space be occurring because of fraudulent applications successfully evading detection? This highlights the need for application fraud protection in addition to post-onboarding fraud monitoring controls.