afrol News, 11 February - The United States and Canadian merchants have blocked over 70 percent international online orders from Nigeria and Ghana due to fraud, the US payment processor CyberSource Corp has said.

According to a survey carried out in 2008, almost 30 percent of the merchants surveyed who had accepted international orders online stopped taking orders from one or more countries due to high levels of fraud.

"In that group, 76 percent of merchants shut off orders from Nigeria, 58 percent froze out Ghana, and 32 percent slammed the door on Pakistan," CyberSource said.

The survey said over half (52 percent) of e-commerce merchants today accept orders from abroad which account for more than 17 percent of their total sales, further stating that merchants said four percent of international orders turn out to be fraudulent, with the international fraud rate having increased to 67 percent since 2005.

CyberSource Director of Market and Customer Intelligence Doug Schwegman said international e-commerce represents great opportunity and challenge simultaneously. "Growth rates beyond the US and Canadian borders remain considerably higher than here," he said in a statement.

He said during difficult economic times, expanding international e-commerce is a logical move for many merchants, however, he said the overall rates of fraud require merchants exercise great care in handling orders received from abroad.

"Given the fraud risk that exists with overseas orders, it's no surprise that merchants reject more orders from abroad," the survey said.

Nigeria is ranked amongst the most corrupt countries according top corruption perception index.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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