Retail Decisions (ReD) reports that the online retail market experienced a staggering 40 percent increase in attempted online fraud on one of the USA's busiest shopping days, Black Friday.

ReD, a payment card issuer and world leader in card fraud prevention and payment processing, reports that its online retail clients saw an increase in attempted fraudulent activities. Furthermore, the value of fraudsters' attempted transactions increased to an average of $248, up on last year by 25%. The favorite items for the would-be fraudster included Virtual Gift Cards, Givenchy Perfume, Lancome and Estee Lauder Cosmetics. According to ReD, the most fraud prone US shipping and billing states were Florida and New York.

As ReD monitors some 16 billion card transactions annually, providing a unique prospective on sales volumes and trends. Carl Clump, CEO at Retail Decisions states, "Forty percent uplift in attempted online card fraud is a dramatic increase. Retailers are being hit from all angles, with the economic downturn accompanied by an increase in attempted fraud. The damage from online fraud can be extensive to businesses, and its' reputation as well as hitting the bottom-line hard."

According to ReD, online shopper's busiest minute for its retail customers was Cyber Monday at 1.48 pm. Black Friday held onto the busiest hour between 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm, and the most popular selling gift items were Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS Display Screen, followed by Samsung Digital Camera, Kodak Digital Camera, Sanyo Xacti Digital Camera and GiiNii 8" Digital Photo Frame.