'Tis the season for ID fraud: Retailers face $100 billion in losses

As retailers enter the key holiday shopping season they're about to get pummeled by identification fraud losses.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Javelin Strategy & Research have cooked up a study the looks at how U.S. retail fraud hits merchants. Retailers face $100 billion in losses attributed to ID fraud in 2009. Toss in lost and stolen inventory and losses swell to $191 billion.

In the study, LexisNexis argues that retailers take on most of the costs of fraud. Among the key points:

• 52 percent total fraud losses are due to ID fraud and bogus transactions.
• Digital goods merchants say 54 percent of their fraud losses are related to unauthorized purchases.
• Telecom, social networking and online gaming companies attribute anywhere from 64 percent to 67 percent of their fraud losses to identity fraud.
• Credit card crimes continue to rise, but alternative payment schemes (online and mobile) are also ripe for fraud.
• One in five merchants saw an increase in unauthorized transactions due to ID fraud.
• For $48 billion of ID fraud crimes consumers pay $4.8 billion in out-of-pocket costs related to ID fraud. Financial institutions pony up $11 billion and merchants take the $100 billion hit due to lost sales, reputation harm and other lingering effects.
• Friendly fraud accounts for more than a third of total fraud for online merchants. What's friendly fraud? A consumer makes an Internet purchase via credit card and issues a chargeback after receiving the purchase.

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Among the key charts:

A look a consumer ID fraud trends:

The impact on behavior:

The impact on online actions: