The latest piece of groundbreaking industry research from dispute resolution specialist Chargebacks911, The 2021 Chargeback Field Report assessed over 400 merchants across the US and the UK and identified a dramatic rise in friendly fraud over the past three years, with 80% of merchants seeing an increase in false claims.

In addition, while 94% of merchants consider friendly fraud to be a problem for their business, less than 30% are taking steps to combat it. This behaviour indicates that there is a knowledge gap preventing merchants from confidently combating fraudulently filed chargebacks.

Other headline stats include:
• 68% of merchants have seen the pandemic cause an increase to their chargebacks
• Nearly a third of merchants experience difficulties contesting illegitimate chargebacks
• And for every friendly fraud case that goes uncontested, 50% of cardholders will go on to commit the crime again in less than 60 days