Philip Plambeck says eCommerce players can no longer rely on outdated fraud prevention tactics
Retailers who fail to modernise their fraud prevention strategies risk serious financial and reputational consequences, warns Philip Plambeck, Managing Director UK at Computop, a global payment and fraud prevention provider.
The recent release of UK Finance’s 2025 Annual Fraud Report highlights a major shift in the fraud landscape, with Remote Purchase Fraud surging 22% in volume and 11% in value – marking the first increase since 2018. This comes as cyber-criminals increasingly abandon Authorised Push Payment scams in favour of more scalable, anonymous, and digitally enabled tactics.
“Retailers are now frontline defenders in the UK’s evolving fraud landscape and it has become imperative that they understand the innovations happening in retail fraud prevention,” Philip Plambeck said.
Remote Purchase Fraud now accounts for over £399 million in unauthorised card fraud losses, with criminals using stolen card details, phishing tactics, and compromised digital wallets to bypass standard defences.
Computop is urging retailers to make proactive fraud detection a key part of their defence strategies.
Tools are now available that employ AI in the fight against cyber attackers, using intelligent insight to help with decision making. Unlike legacy, rule-based systems, AI fraud tools use machine learning to analyse behavioural patterns, geolocation data, device IDs, and biometric signals to assess transaction risk in milliseconds. Retailers that implement such tools benefit from:
- Real-time detection of anomalies
- Fewer false positives, preserving the customer experience
- Cross-channel protection, including mobile and in-store
Crucially, AI adapts dynamically as new fraud techniques emerge – particularly important as the industry begins to face threats from Agentic AI, a class of fraud automation tools capable of orchestrating large-scale attacks autonomously.
As fraud threats continue to evolve, the onus is on retailers to stay informed about the latest innovations in fraud prevention. Machine-speed crime demands a machine-speed response, and the old playbook is no longer enough, Computop warns.
