Merchants in the United States are incurring $191 billion in fraud losses each year, according to a report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Credit card crimes continued to rise sharply, but alternative payments (i.e., online and mobile payments) represented a troubling new source of losses for large merchants. And according to the study, retail merchants are absorbing the vast majority of the costs associated with fraud.

Friendly fraud - where a consumer makes an online purchase with their credit card, then issues a chargeback after receiving the purchase, claiming the purchase was never delivered - accounted for more than one-third of the total fraud for online-accepting merchants.

Developed in conjunction with Javelin Strategy & Research, the study examines how U.S. retail fraud affects merchants, financial institutions and consumers. The full study is available on the LexisNexis Risk Solutions website.