Topic starter
11/07/2026 8:45 pm
TL;DR: Consumers are worried about online fraud this holiday season, with 84% concerned about AI-based fraud and 81% worried about shopping fraud overall, while 79% would still sign up for loyalty accounts if onboarding took 30 seconds or less, according to Prove Identity’s 2023 survey-based report. The operational lesson is that trust and conversion now have to be engineered together, not treated as competing goals.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Prove Identity: “2023 Online Shopping Report Shows 84% of Consumers Are Concerned About AI-Based Fraud This Holiday Season”.
By the numbers:
- 84% of consumers said they're concerned about AI-based fraud attacks this holiday season.
- 81% of consumers said they are worried about fraud while shopping online this holiday season.
- 85% said they rely on their mobile phones to access their accounts.
Key questions
Q: How should retailers reduce fraud without making checkout too slow?
A: Use progressive verification.
Q: Why do consumers still abandon account creation even when they worry about fraud?
A: Because users usually experience the friction immediately and the fraud risk abstractly.
Q: What are the signs that onboarding controls are too weak or too heavy?
A: Too weak looks like rapid fake signups, repeat abuse, and accounts that are hard to trust after creation.
Practitioner guidance
- Strengthen account assurance at enrolment Use identity verification signals that bind a new account to a real person or device before the account becomes a reusable fraud asset.
- Compress onboarding without removing assurance Redesign signup so low-friction steps happen first, then reserve stronger checks for risk-based escalation points that do not block ordinary shoppers.
- Use mobile as the primary authentication channel Prefer mobile-based verification and authentication paths for consumer accounts where users already rely on phones for access and daily login.
Bottom line: AI-based fraud is raising consumer concern during the holiday shopping season, which means trust has become a material checkout design issue.
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11/07/2026 9:13 pm
Holiday checkout fraud is now an identity design problem, not just a detection problem: the consumer survey points to a market where fraud concern and conversion pressure are present at the same time. That means the governance question is where to place trust decisions so the business can still acquire accounts without creating avoidable exposure. Practitioners should treat checkout as an identity control point, not a pure commerce funnel.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Nearly 60% of companies reported that fraud losses were still increasing in 2025.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What should teams do when mobile authentication becomes the preferred consumer path?
A: Treat the phone as part of the trust model, not just the login device. Bind enrolment, authentication, and recovery to signals the mobile channel can support, then use stronger checks only when risk increases. That approach fits consumer behaviour while avoiding password-only dependence.
👉 Read our full editorial: AI-based fraud is reshaping holiday checkout trust