Fraud Trends in Europe and the UK
State of Fraud and Abuse in the UK and Europe Report 2025
As ecommerce continues to grow in Europe and in the UK, online fraud continues to grow with it. In the UK and Europe, sales grew by 1% and 7% respectively over the past year, according to Signifyd data. Meanwhile, fraud pressure, or the percentage of orders deemed very risky by Signifyd’s models, increased 46% between mid-2024 and mid-2025 measured by the value of the merchandise targeted and up 20% measured by orders placed.
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Contents
- Fraud trends affecting retailers in the UK and Europe
- Strong customer authentication is pushing novel fraud attacks
- Cybercrime rings targeting ecommerce
- Buy now pay later spells new fraud risks
- Impact of agentic commerce for UK and European retailers
- Return fraud and abuse continues to plague EMEA merchants
- State of Fraud in the US and LATAM
Fraud trends affecting retailers in the UK and Europe
In the post‑SCA (strong customer authentication) world, first‑party fraud has emerged as one of the fastest‑growing threats, fuelled by opportunistic customers and professional fraudsters. First-party fraud, or false chargeback claims by the legitimate credit cardholder, showed significant spikes during the second quarter of 2025, compared to the previous year.
Consumer Abuse Index
What is the consumer abuse index?
Signifyd’s Consumer Abuse Index charts the rise and fall year over year of policy abuse committed by legitimate cardholders. It examines the percentage of chargebacks fought by Signifyd and successfully won over time. This index assumes winnable chargebacks are highly likely to be true consumer abuse.
SCA is pushing novel fraud attacks
Xavi Sheikrojan, who heads Signifyd’s EMEA risk team, explains that when strong customer authentication made traditional payment fraud more difficult, fraud rings moved to schemes involving first-party fraud.
Cybercrime rings
targeting ecommerce
A wave of high‑profile cyberattacks shook UK retail this year, putting Marks & Spencer, Harrods and the Co‑op in the crosshairs. Marks and Spencer, known as M&S, Harrods and the Co‑op were all victims of attacks that sought ransom payments, disrupted their businesses and risked damaging the sterling brand reputations the retailers had established.
Major cyberattacks do more than disrupt operations. They often fuel the next wave of fraud attacks. While the victims of the UK attacks reported that no credit card information was stolen, personal data — such as email addresses, delivery addresses and birth dates — was exposed. Such data can be used in conjunction with stolen credentials to commit payment fraud or to create synthetic identities that facilitate unauthorised purchases.
Buy now pay later spells new fraud risks
Buy now pay later (BNPL) historically has fueled higher returns when shoppers buy more than they normally would, given the low initial price point. When the reality of instalment payments kicks in, so too does buyer’s remorse and some of the purchases come back to the retailer.
Beyond maintaining excellent communication with their BNPL providers, merchants will want to build tools or team with commerce protection providers that can analyse the identity and intent of buyers while providing visibility throughout the buying and payment process no matter the method used at checkout.
Impact of agentic commerce for UK and European retailers
Agentic commerce is reshaping the world of retail — and of course that applies globally. UK and European merchants and their customers will benefit from the opportunities and operational challenges brought on by the rapidly evolving commerce transformation.
New ways of shopping require new ways of thinking for retailers looking to serve future-focused consumers. Determining the difference between helpful shopping bots and malicious agents serving fraudsters will be vital to realising the promise of the agentic commerce era.
Return fraud and abuse continues to plague EMEA merchants
While first-party fraud continued to rise in EMEA, its close cousin — return fraud and abuse — has also flourished in the past 12 months.
Global State of Fraud and LATAM
GLOBAL EDITION
The Global State of Fraud and Returns 2025
LATAM EDITION
The State of Fraud and Returns in LATAM 2025
Access the 2025 State of Fraud and Abuse report – LATAM Insights
Thank you for downloading the 2025 State of Fraud and Abuse report – LATAM Insights.
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