Avoid ecommerce fraud with the help of web scraping

E-commerce fraud is a huge problem that causes massive losses...

E-Commerce
Custom-development
Naman Gupta
Naman Gupta
February 21, 2025
6 minute read
Avoid ecommerce fraud with the help of web scraping

UserVoice pioneered the concept of feature request tracking and idea voting boards, helping to make businesses more customer-centric. They deserve credit for pushing the industry forward.

But while UserVoice may have been groundbreaking back in 2008, their product hasn't kept up with the times.

E-commerce fraud is a huge problem that causes massive losses for online retailers. Fraudsters use sophisticated techniques like fake accounts, stolen payment info, and more to game the system. Luckily, web scraping provides a powerful tool to help e-commerce businesses detect and prevent fraud.

How Ecommerce Fraud Occurs

Some common types of ecommerce fraud include:

  • Fake Accounts – Fake or stolen identities are used to open accounts for fraudulent purchases. It also allows them to bypass the anti-fraud systems linked to real profiles.
  • Stolen Payment Info – Criminals steal credit cards and other payment details through hacking, phishing, or buying on dark websites. They use them to make purchases.
  • Coupon Abuse – Fraudsters find and apply coupon codes not meant for them to get heavy discounts or free products. This impacts promotions budgets.
  • Reselling- Fraudsters buy products only to resell them on other sites for profit. This limits inventory for genuine customers.
  • Fake Reviews – Scammers create fake accounts to write fake positive reviews to boost product ratings.

How Web Scraping for E-commerce Helps

Web scraping provides an effective solution to detect and stop many types of ecommerce fraud:

Profile Analysis

  • Web scrapers can extract data from user profiles across ecommerce sites and social networks.
  • Analyzing this data can reveal connections between accounts and help identify fake profiles.
  • Details like address, phone, name, etc., can be cross-checked to detect fakes.

Review Analysis

  • Web scrapers can extract all reviews for products from an ecommerce site.
  • Analyzing the reviewer profiles, review language, ratings, etc., can identify fraudulent reviews.
  • The sources, dates, and data of reviews can be compared to detect patterns of fake reviews.

Coupon Hunting

  • Web scraping bots can scour the web to find unused coupon codes for an ecommerce site.
  • These codes can then be disabled or limited to stop fraud through coupon abuse.
  • The terms and conditions of coupons can also be scraped to understand policies.

Price Monitoring

  • Scraping competitor sites can uncover pricing trends and anomalies.
  • If products are available for lower prices on other sites, it indicates potential reselling fraud.
  • Scrape marketplaces like eBay as well to uncover discounted product resales.

Inventory Tracking

  • Scrape product listings across an ecommerce site over time.
  • Analyzing changes in inventory levels can uncover patterns suggesting reselling fraud.
  • Gauging actual demand vs. inventory can indicate products targeted for fraudulent resale.

Payment Analysis

  • Web scraping can gather data on all transactions and failed payments.
  • Analyzing this data can detect spikes suggesting the use of stolen payment info.
  • It can also identify common flags among fraudulent orders to improve detection.

Implementing Ecommerce Anti-Fraud Web Scrapers

Here are some tips for implementing web scraping as part of your ecommerce fraud prevention:

  • Use robust tools – Invest in robust web scraping software optimized for large-scale data extraction, like Relu Consultancy, the best web scraping service offers. Avoid limited browser extensions or coding-focused tools.
  • Scrape wisely – Don’t excessively scrape sites, as that can get you blocked. Use tactics like proxies, throttling, and anonymization to scrape undetected.
  • Analyze carefully – Having scraped data is one thing, but analyzing it properly is key. Use technologies like machine learning and other AI to uncover hidden insights.
  • Automate workflows – Set up automated scraping on schedules to extract data regularly. Automate analysis tasks, too, for efficient fraud detection.
  • Enrich data – Combine scraped ecommerce data with other sources like emails, call logs, and payments data for a 360-degree customer view.
  • Stay updated – Fraud tactics evolve, so evaluate your web scraping and anti-fraud strategies. Adjust the data points, tools, and techniques as needed.

The Bottom Line

Ecommerce fraud poses a real danger to revenues and reputation for online businesses. Web scraping offers a flexible yet efficient means of extracting data to identify threats and strengthen fraud prevention efforts.

Retailers can effectively mitigate emerging fraud trends and patterns using scraped data analytics. Scraping solutions tailored to your business provide maximum protection from online shopping scammers.

However, web scraping services in USA remain unknown to many retailers. You could benefit from engaging a professional web scraping firm and immediately exploiting its power.

Avoid ecommerce fraud with the help of web scraping

Naman Gupta

Founder & CEO, Relu Consultancy
which deals in web scraping services which include Python Web Scraping, Web Scraper Tools, Website Data Extraction, Web Scraping API.

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I've been working with him for a few projects, he takes his time to analyze it very deeply and usually it comes out as exactly as he said, so he's one of the finest developers I met & I give him every project because I know that he takes the time not like everyone else and he's really making sure he will be able to deliver it on time & cost he say. I really appreciate his work and I recommend him a lot!

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Relu Consultancy impresses with its honesty and responsiveness despite time differences, offering expert data collection services beneficial for e-commerce analysis. They excel in monitoring services and promptly addressing issues, although slight coordination challenges may arise due to differing holiday schedules across countries. Overall, they come highly recommended for data analysts seeking reliable data solutions.

Relu Consultancy impresses with its honesty and responsiveness despite time differences, offering expert data collection services beneficial for e-commerce analysis. They excel in monitoring services and promptly addressing issues, although slight coordination challenges may arise due to differing holiday schedules across countries. Overall, they come highly recommended for data analysts seeking reliable data solutions.

Remi Delevaux

 Siri Gaja
We collaborated with Relu Consultancy to implement a new feature, encompassing web scraping, APIs, and React frontend.
The project was successfully completed and delivered to production, where it is currently being utilized by live clients. Throughout the entire process, the Relu team demonstrated agility in comprehending evolving requirements and promptly incorporating changes to enhance the product feature.
Effective communication and collaboration were maintained seamlessly throughout the project's duration.

We collaborated with Relu Consultancy to implement a new feature, encompassing web scraping, APIs, and React frontend. The project was successfully completed and delivered to production, where it is currently being utilized by live clients. Throughout the entire process, the Relu team demonstrated agility in comprehending evolving requirements and promptly incorporating changes to enhance the product feature. Effective communication and collaboration were maintained seamlessly throughout the project's duration.

Siri Gaja

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Thank you for getting us what we wanted without us having to sweat it out to explain what we wanted. This reflects your experience in developing various software products, no matter how out-of-this-world the idea may be. I also appreciate you getting our job done within our budget. I am looking forward to a long partnership that will last for years to come, with more products in our pipeline heading your way.

Edwin Boris

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After exploring various freelancers, one key factor that led us to choose Relu Consultancy was the intuitive understanding they demonstrated regarding our requirements. They delivered the software exactly as per our specifications, adhering to the agreed timeline and staying within our budget. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with them in the future. CIO TechWorld

Eric Hill

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