An Adeptra survey of 400 American and British consumers in the run up to Black Friday reveals that American consumers are more concerned than the British about being victims of financial fraud and so check their bank and card statements more regularly.
Black Friday, November 27, 2009 is projected to be more important to the retail industry than previous years. Notorious for being the biggest shopping day of the year in the US, and the best day to find the year’s biggest deals, 16 percent of consumers are expected to begin their holiday shopping that day, compared to 10 percent in 2007 and 2008 and the previous high of 13 percent in 2006. The volume of retail transactions jumps to millions of credit cards processed every hour, resulting in a peak of fraudulent activities.
With a greater threat of fraud in mind, it is crucial for consumers to monitor their finances over the holiday period. In parallel surveys conducted in central London and downtown Manhattan, Adeptra asked consumers how frequently they checked their credit card and bank statements. One in 10 (10%) British consumers admitted they never check their statements and 67% stated they only check their statements monthly, compared to more diligent responses from the American consumers with 11% stating they checked their balance daily and 53% checking every week.
Adeptra is a leading provider of Auto-resolution services for companies engaged in consumer credit and risk management. Its technology is relied on by nine of the top 10 UK card issuers, eight of North America’s top 10 financial institutions, and three of the top four Australian banks.
The surveys also asked both sets of consumers how they would prefer to be contacted in regard to potentially fraudulent transactions. In both the US and the UK the preferred method of being alerted to potentially fraudulent transactions was a cellphone call, with 54% of Americans and 72% of Brits claiming they would like to be contacted in this way.
However, when asked about being contacted about potentially fraudulent activity by email, US and UK consumers showed opposing views with 20% of Americans agreeing this would be their preferred route of communication, compared to only one percent of British respondents.
The American and British consumers surveyed also demonstrated a difference in attitudes to SMS communication with twice as many British (12%) than Americans (6%) selecting this as their preferred method of contact from their bank or card issuer.
Lou Venezia, CEO of Adeptra said: “Credit and debit fraud is more prevalent than ever -“ and as fraudsters look to take advantage of the volume of transactions over this busy shopping period, consumers expect peace of mind as their banks and credit issuers do all they can to stay a step ahead of fraudsters.”
He continued: “Banks and card issuers need to protect their consumers and their brand by implementing processes and systems to detect and prevent fraud in real-time. However, they need to do so and be sympathetic to how individual consumers want to be contacted -“ and as our surveys show these preferences can vary dramatically across geographies.”
