Don Bush Says COVID-Related Fraud Attacks are Ultimately Hurting Merchants
Don Bush, VP of Sales and Marketing at Chargebacks911, was recently interviewed by CBS Tampa Bay to offer insight for a new story on how scammers are taking advantage of COVID-19. But, while cardholders are the targets, it’s merchants who ultimately pay the price.
CW44 is a CBS-owned and operated television station in the Tampa Bay area, serving a large span of the Gulf Coast and the I-4 corridor. Combined, the station reaches more than 5 million people in the Central Florida market.
“When the pandemic hit, and people were given stay-at-home orders, you couldn’t do things like you normally did. It drove people away from going down to their local market, and toward going online to make purchases,” Don explains. “And with millions and millions of new people coming online and ordering things, chargebacks went up.”
There is a multiplier effect at play here, as Florida is a nexus for both COVID-19 infections and online fraud. As cited in the feature, roughly 1.4 million Floridians lost more than $84 million in fraudulent activity in 2018. Unfortunately, the two seemingly-unrelated facts combine to create a larger and more complicated problem.
“Scammers love pandemics, and crises, and chaos. They will take advantage of that, so their presence went up.” And, as fraudsters use the pandemic to cover their activity, businesses are the ones who suffer, when cardholders recoup their losses through the chargeback process.
