40 E-Commerce Fraud Statistics for 2026 (Losses & Prevention)

Every fraud attempt that gets through your store costs you twice. You lose the product, and you often lose the customer’s trust too.

Global e-commerce fraud losses have reached about $48 billion a year, and merchants absorb most of it themselves. The average store now loses close to 3% of its total revenue to fraud, so this is not a rare event, it is a fixed cost most businesses are already paying.

This page has 40 up-to-date e-commerce fraud statistics. You will see how big the losses are, the tactics fraudsters use most, how AI is changing both sides of the fight, and what actually cuts your risk.

Key E-Commerce Fraud Statistics

Ten numbers that sum up e-commerce fraud right now. Figures are current as of August 2026, based on the latest published data from each source.

Metric	Latest Figure
Global e-commerce fraud losses per year	About $48 billion
Average share of revenue merchants lose to fraud	About 3%
Share of payment fraud merchants absorb themselves	60%
People who have experienced online fraud	More than 43%
Chargebacks projected for 2026	337 million
Share of chargebacks that are first-party (friendly fraud)	More than 45%
Rise in account takeover fraud (year over year)	37%
Rise in synthetic identity document fraud	311%
Global rise in deepfake fraud	1,100%
Bot share of holiday-season website traffic	57%

How Much Does E-Commerce Fraud Actually Cost?

Global losses sit around $48 billion a year, and the average merchant now loses close to 3% of total revenue to fraud, not counting the time spent fighting it.

1. Global e-commerce fraud losses run around $48 billion every year.

2. Merchants lose about 3% of total revenue to fraud on average, with high-risk categories losing 5% or more.

3. That average varies sharply by region: Latin America loses about 4.6%, Europe 3.1%, Asia-Pacific 2.9%, and North America 2.4%.

4. Merchants absorb about 60% of payment fraud losses themselves, roughly $18 billion of the annual total.

5. Global credit card fraud alone is projected to reach $43 billion by the end of 2026.

6. About 46% of e-commerce credit card fraud happens in the United States.

7. US e-commerce credit card fraud has grown 140% over the past three years.

8. More than 43% of people say they have personally experienced online fraud.

Fraud is not a rare event you insure against once. It is a running cost that shows up every month, in every category, whether or not you notice it in your reports.

What Is Friendly Fraud and How Big Is It?

Friendly fraud, where a real customer disputes a legitimate purchase, now makes up more than 45% of all chargebacks, and chargeback volume keeps climbing.

9. Chargeback volume is projected to hit 337 million in 2026, up 41% from 2023.

10. First-party fraud, also called friendly fraud, now accounts for more than 45% of all chargebacks.

11. Chargeback fraud affects roughly 34% of online stores worldwide.

12. More than 40% of shoppers admit to disputing a charge for something they actually received.

13. US merchants lose about $4.61 for every $1 of confirmed fraud once fees, chargebacks, and lost goods are added up, a cost that compounds with cart abandonment from shoppers who no longer trust the checkout.

14. Refund and policy abuse now ranks as the top fraud threat merchants report facing.

Most chargeback tools were built to catch stolen cards, not a real customer clicking dispute. That gap is exactly why friendly fraud keeps growing faster than every other category.

How Fast Is Account Takeover Fraud Growing?

Account takeover fraud jumped 37% in a year, and it now runs on stolen credentials tested automatically against thousands of stores at once.

15. Suspected account takeover fraud rose 37% year over year.

16. Account takeover now makes up close to 29% of all fraud attempts.

17. Of those attacks, about 21% target business accounts and 75% target personal accounts.

18. Stolen login credentials from data breaches are tested against store accounts at scale, using the same automation as card testing.

19. Synthetic identity document fraud, which blends real and fake data to pass identity checks, surged 311% in a single year.

20. The average corporate data breach now costs close to $5 million.

Account takeover succeeds because the same stolen password often works everywhere. A customer who reused a password on a breached site has effectively handed a fraudster a key to their account on yours too.

What Has AI Changed About E-Commerce Fraud?

AI cut the cost of running convincing scams. Deepfake fraud is up 1,100% worldwide, and AI-driven fraud losses could hit $40 billion by 2027.

21. Deepfake fraud has surged about 1,100% globally.

22. In the US, deepfake fraud attempts grew about 700% year over year; in Canada, growth reached 3,400%.

23. Businesses lost an average of $500,000 per deepfake-related incident, with some large-enterprise losses reaching $680,000.

24. AI-driven fraud losses are projected to grow from about $12.3 billion in 2023 to $40 billion by 2027.

25. Bots made up 57% of e-commerce website traffic during the 2024 holiday season, the first time automated traffic outpaced real shoppers.

26. 63% of merchants are already exploring or planning to accept AI agent-driven payments, opening a new attack surface fraud tools have not caught up to.

AI is not a future threat here, it is already running at scale on both sides. The businesses ahead of it are using AI detection to spot the same patterns fraudsters use to automate attacks.

How Does Fraud Affect Customer Trust?

Fraud does not just cost the transaction, it costs the relationship. Customers who get burned once rarely give a store a second chance.

27. One in four merchants reports an increase in fraud attempts since customer trust in online shopping first dipped.

28. Merchants now spend close to 10% of annual revenue managing fraud prevention.

29. 59% of e-commerce companies use CAPTCHAs specifically to slow down bot-driven fraud attempts.

30. Businesses that add visible trust signals, like verified customer reviews and clear policies, see fewer disputed transactions from genuine customers.

A store that looks trustworthy gets fewer honest disputes, not just fewer scams. Visible reviews and social proof do double duty here: they convert hesitant shoppers and they give real customers less reason to second-guess a charge later.

Where Does Fraud Hit Hardest?

Card-not-present fraud still dominates online transactions, and the US carries a disproportionate share of global losses.

31. Card-not-present fraud makes up as much as 85% of all card fraud.

32. The US alone loses more than $10 billion a year to card-not-present fraud.

33. About 40% of global e-commerce fraud attacks originate from the United States.

34. Identity theft ranks as the second most common type of fraud in the European Union.

35. Phishing remains one of the most common entry points, tricking shoppers into handing over payment details directly.

36. Triangulation fraud, where a fake storefront resells stolen-card orders through real retailers, continues to spread across marketplaces.

37. Promotional and policy abuse, like fraudulent new accounts created to farm sign-up discounts, is now a top-ranked threat category, alongside the same trust gaps covered in our Trustpilot statistics.

None of these tactics need advanced hacking. Most exploit a gap in policy or a moment of trust, which is exactly why prevention has to be built into the buying experience, not bolted on after checkout.

How to Use These Numbers

Treat fraud as a cost you manage, not a rare event you insure against. Budget for it, and put basic checks like CAPTCHAs and address verification in front of every checkout.

Watch account security and chargebacks closely, since those two categories are growing fastest right now.

Pair fraud tools with visible trust signals like real reviews and personalized checkout flows, since a store that looks trustworthy earns fewer honest disputes too. Our customer experience statistics cover the trust side in more depth.

Conclusion

E-commerce fraud is not slowing down. It is getting faster and harder to spot, especially with AI now doing the work fraudsters used to do by hand.

The good news is that most fraud still follows familiar patterns. Basic checks, visible trust signals, and steady monitoring stop far more of it than most stores expect.

Fraud will always find a way in somewhere. The businesses that lose the least are the ones paying attention everywhere, not just at checkout.

Sources

DemandSage | Ringly | Cropink | Merchant Fraud Journal | Wyllo | Merchant Risk Council