Fraudsters Targeting Mid-Priced Luxury Goods, Refurbished Electronics This Holiday Season

Tougher security vetting by high-end luxury goods retailers has online fraudsters moving downscale to the still-profitable mid-price range, and crooks also are targeting refurbished consumer electronics, according to new findings from security technology firm Forter Inc.

Forter, which has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel, this week released “The 2016 Fraudster Wish List” based on an analysis of 3 million e-commerce transactions that its systems reviewed from September into November. Mid-priced luxury goods include Tissot watches, Michael Kors bags, and Ralph Lauren Ricky purses. Last year, fraudsters targeted more expensive items, according to Forter.

“E-commerce merchants are especially sensitive to the possibility of fraud at the moment, since a year of EMV … adoption [a reference to the U.S. EMV chip card liability shift in 2015] has led to many fraudsters moving online,” says the report. “Fraudsters are apparently aiming to fly under the radar with more modest—though still highly lucrative—luxury purchases that they can resell with ease.”

Also highly popular this year are refurbished consumer electronics, especially rehabbed MacBook laptops from Apple Inc., and Android mobile phones.

MacBook and MacBook Pros tend to be pricier than Windows-based laptops. “MacBooks are especially popular—possibly because the high price tag on a new MacBook means that consumers are often inclined to look secondhand,” says the report. “It may be that some fraudsters are buying for their personal use; post-EMV, with so many fraudsters moving online, more criminals than ever need access to a good computer.”

Ranking third on fraudster wish lists are digital products, including Sears gift and other gift cards, which are easy to sell or convert into cash. Forter also says some fraudsters are selling fake Bitcoin to unsuspecting buyers of the digital currency.

“Now fraudsters are taking advantage of the fact that some genuine customers, who don’t know how it works, would quite like to own Bitcoin,” says the report. “Unfortunately, the person who really benefits in this transaction is, of course, the fraudster.”