E-crime costs online retailers £205.4 million a year

Online crime is costing ecommerce retailers £205.4 million a year. That includes £77.3 million in losses from fraud as well as prevention costs and legitimate business lost as a result of those measures, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

In the BRC’s first e-crime study, published today, it emerged that in proportion to the total value of sales, e-crime is twice as costly as overall retail crime. At £205.4 million, e-crime represents 0.75 percent of the £28 billion of online retail sales in 2011. The £1.4 billion cost of retail crime as a whole is 0.36 percent of the £303 billion value of all retail sales.

The most expensive type of e-crime for retailers was personal identification-related frauds. These produced £20 million of losses in 2011-12. Card fraud was in second place, with £15 million losses to retailers during the same period. Refund frauds were responsible for £1.2 million in losses.