Mirroring concerns for mobile commerce security in the rest of the world, U.K. Internet payment service provider PayPoint.net released a new report on the potential growth of e-commerce fraud in the U.K. The news isn't good, and according to the report, mobile commerce and social shopping may be to blame.

The new report, called "Shoppers' Delight or Gangsters' Paradise," says that after two years of decline, online fraud in the U.K. will grow 18 percent to £195.3 million (US$312 million) by 2015. The reason? The success of mobile commerce and social shopping.

The report says that the growth of mobile commerce and social shopping will push U.K. online shopping to £33.7 billion (US$ 53.8 billion). Additionally, the report says the number of consumers in the U.K. making e-commmerce purchases will grow to 10.5 million in 2015. Unfortunately for all those new shoppers, especially those employing mobile devices to make their purchases, their chosen method of shopping is inherently more risky.

The PayPoint.net report says that new payment channels, like all technologies during their early phases of adoption, are more vulnerable to fraud while unknown security issues are discovered and fixed — or exploited.

According to the report, as a shopping channel develops, incremental data provided to retailers gives them the ability to monitor transactions and understand the patterns that might signal a fraudulent transaction. Less data from a new channel necessarily means more fraud. Additionally, the report notes that consumers provide less data through mobile and social sites than through traditional e-commerce sites, so retailers have less information to use as verification that a purchase is legitimate.

"Shopping on a mobile phone or favorite social media site is the next big thing in e-commerce, but criminals are likely to capitalize on poor awareness of the risks by consumers and retailers alike," Michael Norton, managing director of PayPoint.net, said in the announcement of the study. "This study shows these new ways of shopping could be victims of their own successes for all the wrong reasons. The next few years will be a period of trial and error as mobile and social media commerce evolves in the U.K."

The research is especially timely given recent reports from several analysts forecasting a global surge in mobile commerce and mobile payments in the next few years. Several recent studies have also indicated that worries over the security of mobile commerce and mobile payments are a top concern for consumers adopting the technology.

The research for the study was conducted for PayPoint.net by the Centre for Economics and Business Research during May and June 2011. Research included data from the Office for National Statistics, Financial Fraud Action U.K. and a survey of 2,000 consumers.