When was the last time you used cash for a transaction? Many of us can go for months without resorting to cash for our daily business. The convenience of tapping a card is simply too alluring to consider using old-fashioned legal tender. In some areas, cash now accounts for less than 10% of all transactions. And of course, many transactions take place online, where cash is useless. The dream of a cashless society seems to be upon us — almost. Yet despite the ubiquity and convenience of...

There has been little respite from the relentless onslaught of fraud in recent years—and there are few signs of it slowing down. The FBI’s annual Internet Crime Report found that Americans lost nearly $21 billion last year, soaring to an all-time high . At the same time, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 1,008,597 complaints, a 17.3% increase year-over-year. Perennial threats like phishing, extortion, and investment schemes were the most frequently reported complaints....

At first glance, it looks like a simple return or a routine dispute. But behind many of these transactions is a growing problem often mischaracterized as friendly fraud—a form of first-party fraud that costs organizations significantly and is increasingly normalized by consumers. Although it has sometimes been called friendly fraud, there is nothing benign about exploiting organizations’ returns processes. What’s even more troubling is that a growing number of consumers feel justified in not...