Global Fraud Prevention Leader, Retail Decisions Predicts U.S. Peak Online Holiday Shopping Day

(www.AllPayNews.com) - Retail Decisions (ReD), a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing, predicts during Holiday season 2007 that online purchasing activity will peak for major retailers on Monday, December 10, between 1:00PM and 2:00PM EST.

ReD hosts the world's largest proprietary database of suspect transactional data and monitors about 14 billion card transactions
annually. ReD analyzes this data to provide trends for online purchasing activity and therefore has a good understanding of which items will be targeted by fraudsters during the holiday season.

"Looking at current fraud data, the top categories of products purchased fraudulently in the U.S. during 2007 have been gift cards, electronic games, consumer electronics and apparel," said Carl Clump, CEO of Retail Decisions.

ReD is predicting that gift cards will be the number one target for fraudsters during the upcoming holiday season. "It has become increasingly easy for criminals to fraudulently load value onto gift cards," Clump explained. "During Q3 of 2007, our statistics revealed that 11% of all attempted card fraud at retailers throughout the world, using our ReD Shield card fraud prevention service, was on gift card transactions."

ReD has recorded a like for like 38% increase in attempted fraud in the last six months versus the same period last year. This compares to a 29% rise in the total volume of transactions during the same period. "In other words, fraud attempts are increasing more rapidly than the market is expanding," Clump noted.

With less than one week to go, ReD is also predicting that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving which is the traditional kick-off for the holiday shopping season in the U.S., will generate more online shopping volume than CyberMonday, thought to be the kick-off of the online holiday season. From 2005 to 2006, ReD saw transaction volumes increase by 109% on Black Friday for its U.S. clients. ReD's fraud analysts are predicting a similar increase of 110% this year.

"ReD is a global player and we are able to pool data across geographies," Clump explained. "Since ReD operates in numerous industries ranging from retail to travel, from banking to telecommunications, we have the broadest perspective of fraud patterns, and are able to use this knowledge for the benefit of all our customers regardless of their business sector."

Unfortunately, merchants without sophisticated fraud prevention will see fraudulent product purchases skyrocket. ReD's fraud prevention service maximizes the number of transactions that can be safely accepted while minimizing the retailer's exposure to fraudulent transactions. Clump said, "In our experience, between 6-8% of transactions are rejected by online merchants with in-house fraud prevention systems. Only 1-2% of all transactions are actually fraudulent, therefore up to 7% of overall transactions are being falsely rejected before we get involved and improve the situation for our customers."

About Retail Decisions

Retail Decisions (ReD) is a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing. A specialist supplier to the payments industry worldwide, ReD has over 19 years of experience in the fraud prevention market. ReD, which hosts the world's largest proprietary database of suspect payment cards monitors about 14 billion card transactions annually and estimates that its systems allow its clients to prevent about $1.2 billion in fraudulent purchases each year. Its blue-chip international clients come from the global telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, logistics, banking and the broader e-commerce sectors. They include Wal-Mart, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Tesco, Texaco, Shell, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Based in the UK, the company has offices in the United States, Australia and South Africa with representation in Japan and South America. More information about ReD is available at www.redplc.com.

Retail Decisions (ReD)
Carl Clump, Chief Executive
+44 (0)1483 728 700
www.redplc.com
or
Kami Boyer, VP Sales & Marketing
401-228-2386
kboyer@red-usa.com
or
CBK Group
Carol Romeo, 201-556-9404, ext. 110
cromeo@cbkgroup.com