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Fraudsters are often the first to adopt new technology, because it gives them leverage and time before defenses catch up. Generative AI is making synthetic identities, voice spoofing, and socialengineering-led refund fraud far easier to scale. The most sophisticated fraud uses systems exactly as they were designed, just with stolen identities. Triangulation fraud, for example, uses legitimate platforms and real transactions powered by stolen credentials.
Fraud has moved beyond payments into the policies merchants use to create good customer experiences. Returns, refunds, and policy abuse are growing areas of risk. Nearly one in ten returns today are fraudulent, and nearly one in four refund dollars is now driven by abusive claims, underscoring how return policies have become a key target of ecommerce fraud.
What’ s changed the most in recent years is the speed and scale of it. CX teams are being pushed to resolve issues instantly, often without the context needed to assess risk. And as more retailers deploy AI agents on the front lines of customer service, real-time identity risk becomes even more crucial. It helps prevent manipulation and abuse while also reducing false positives that can negatively impact customer satisfaction.
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