Interception fraud is the theft of goods in transit by manipulating the delivery itself. After placing an order with stolen payment data, or targeting someone else’s legitimate order, the bad actor redirects the package: changing the delivery address mid-shipment, rerouting through the carrier’s tools, or intercepting the parcel at the doorstep.
How Interception Fraud Works
The scheme separates the order from the destination. At purchase, the fraudster uses the cardholder’s real billing and shipping address so the order screens clean. Once shipped, they use the carrier’s package management features, or a call to the merchant’s support team, to redirect delivery to an address they control. Variants include requesting a hold for pickup, exploiting buy online, pick up in store flows, and porch piracy timed to tracking updates on someone else’s order taken over through account takeover.
How to Prevent Interception Fraud
Lock the delivery path: restrict post-purchase address changes, require re-verification when a change is requested through support, disable carrier redirection for high value shipments where the carrier allows it, and require ID or pickup codes for held packages. Watch for the tell-tale sequence of a clean order followed minutes later by a redirect request, and give support agents the risk context to treat delivery changes as a sensitive action rather than a routine favor.
How Wyllo Helps
Interception exploits the gap between checkout screening and delivery. Wyllo closes it by scoring post-purchase events too: Wyllo CX Support surfaces risk signals inside the support conversation where redirect requests arrive, and Wyllo Claim and Policy Abuse Prevention connects the request to the account behavior behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who absorbs the loss in interception fraud?
Usually the merchant. If the cardholder disputes an intercepted stolen-card order, the chargeback lands on the store; if a legitimate customer’s package was redirected, the merchant typically reships or refunds to preserve the relationship.
How is interception fraud different from item not received fraud?
In interception fraud the package really is taken; in INR fraud the claimant received the goods and lies about it. Delivery evidence separates the two, which is why tracking, photo confirmation, and signature data matter.
