Some of you may have seen a recent piece in the media regarding underage consumers fraudulently using Klarna. We felt it important to let you, our customers, know how seriously we take these sorts of cases and the steps that we take to prevent this kind of illegal activity.

Whilst our products may look and feel smooth and simplistic, there is a huge amount happening behind the scenes and we work closely with the authorities, our merchants and logistics partners to combat any potential fraud that we identify. At Klarna we analyse and review data every time a transaction takes place. We have advanced technology and use a mixture of internal algorithms and risk models, alongside third-party vendors for verification. If we detect suspicious activity, or cannot get sufficient identity confirmation, we reject the transaction.

Fraud is however, an industry wide problem, and criminals are becoming ever more sophisticated. While we continually invest in our systems to ensure that as little fraud as possible takes place, there are rare occasions where fraudulent activity does occur.

Our products, Pay in 30 days, Instalments and Financing are strictly only available to people aged over 18. Under no circumstances can anyone younger use Klarna legitimately. However, we are aware that the retail and payments industries are affected by cases where minors attempt to use products that are off-limits to them by lying about their identity and impersonating other individuals, such as close family members. When this happens they are committing fraud.

As a bank we take this sort of activity extremely seriously and have dedicated teams who monitor suspicious activity. Protecting our customers and partners is at the very heart of our business, and we conduct rigorous security checks to prevent fraud for the safety of our users and our partners. Our

Whilst we do not go into detail on individual cases, in relation to the incident referenced in the media, we can only broadly say that in instances where family fraud may be committed (e.g. a teenager fraudulently using a parent’s date of birth and other personal details), Klarna takes this as seriously as any other kind of fraud. The fraud in question took place over a year ago. We have since resolved this matter and introduced new measures to help stop cases such as this occurring in the future. You can find more information on how we fight fraud and protect our customers

If you are concerned that you may be a victim of fraud, or you require any fraud prevention advice, you can contact us by phone on 0203 005 0837.