As soon as actress Lupita Nyong’o graced the 2025 Met Gala in her pastel green power suit, real-time fashion brands rushed to order fabric in the same hue.

Inspired by runway looks and celebrity culture, on-demand fashion (aka fast fashion) is all about speed to market. What’s more, real-time fashion operates on a 12-month (or more) seasonal calendar with collections added monthly or even weekly to websites and store racks.

For merchants, this nonstop operational action contributes to intense competition and thin margins. It also creates fraud risk because the dizzying pace of business, combined with high customer churn and increasingly diverse purchasing behaviors, makes it challenging for merchants to detect abnormal patterns and emerging threats — and fraudsters know it. So, in addition to the longstanding problems of returns abuse and wardrobing, fast fashion merchants face an array of scams that exploit their unique vulnerabilities. Here’s a sampling.

“It’s a cruel irony that what makes a great customer experience also makes a great fraudster experience: instant refunds make it easier to get away with sending back an empty box.”

– Risk Rundown: Fast fashion

There are high stakes in high-speed shipping

Riskified research shows that fast-fashion orders with expedited shipping experience higher levels of fraud attempts. This is likely because fraudsters using stolen credit cards are unfazed by the extra expense. Expedited shipping also reduces the time available for merchants to cancel an order in the event of a chargeback or customer complaint, allowing the fraudster ample time to receive and possibly resell the goods.

Fraudsters pull a fast one by mimicking legitimate behavior

Sophisticated fraudsters increasingly use merchants’ own policies to camouflage their schemes. For example, they deliberately combine low-value physical products with high-risk digital goods (such as gift cards) in a single order. This combo exploits the perception that physical orders and older accounts are inherently safer, helping thieves bypass fraud detection systems.

Similarly, fraudsters use old emails and match billing addresses to credit cards while shipping orders to nearby hotels. This tactic likely aims to justify geographic mismatches between billing and shipping addresses, mirroring legitimate behavior by delivering to commercial locations where pickup appears easier.

Fraud know-how is available off the rack

Not only are sophisticated fraudsters becoming more adept at understanding and subverting merchants’ fraud prevention tactics, but amateur fraudsters also have instant access to fraud tips via dark web resources, guides, and services.

A professional fraudster recently shared a comprehensive and readily available guide to carding entitled “How I Look for Cardable Sites.” The author provides exhaustive information on which sites to target and how, alongside which to avoid (wisely advising against targeting merchants who use Riskified.)

Want to get up to speed? Read the Risk Rundown 

In the world of on-demand fashion, friction is the enemy. Merchants need strategies that close loopholes to fraud, maintain seamless experiences for consumers, and reduce operational costs and losses. 

Read the latest Risk Rundown to learn more about fraud trends in fast fashion and how merchants can boost fraud protection and profitability.