First party fraud: a review of the forms and motives of fraudulent consumer behaviours in e-tailing

Purpose – First party fraud is fraud committed by an account holder or customer that does not involve the use of a stolen identity. This type of fraud has grown substantially in recent times due to increased online shopping and is becoming a major concern for online retail businesses, hereby referred to as e-tailers. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the motives and nature of first party fraud in e-tailing. Design/methodology/approach – Systematic literature review was used to synthesise existing research on first party fraud. The authors used scholarly literature as well as grey literature to help understand the motives and nature of this growing business problem. Findings – Findings reveal a myriad of schemes and motives for engaging in first party fraud. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this paper employed very little literature due to availability. However, the authors believe that the findings are still useful for advancing the knowledge in this emerging research area. Practical implications – This study will be useful to researchers as well as practitioners in the retail industry in helping understand the nature and motives of first party frauds which could in turn help devise preventive strategies. The study also makes a case for increased managerial interest and involvement in reducing first party fraud. Originality/value – A comprehensive literature search presented in this paper shows that this is the first paper to synthesise the various forms of first party fraud in e-tailing.