Retailers face increased risk of cyber-crime over the holidays

Theft during the holidays has moved to a new level.

Instead of “buyer beware,” some are advising sellers to keep a sharp watch on electronic transactions.

Radial of King of Prussia, which monitors electronic transactions for retailers, has found that online fraud is on the rise by 30 percent or more.  

Stefan Weitz, Radial’s chief product and strategy officer, said the new chip-embedded credit cards are preventing fraud at bricks-and-mortar shops.

“So, because it’s harder to go and commit fraud physically, they are shifting a lot of their tactics to commit fraud online that doesn’t require that chip,” he said.

Weitz said his company has people constantly monitoring transactions.

“You just see these concentrated ring of fraudsters, almost like organized crime, finding a retailer and seeing a potential for exploitation of that retailer and just hitting them extraordinarily hard,” he said.

It’s hard for online retailers to catch this quickly without a monitoring service, Weitz said, and that’s been good for his business.