Yahoo! Shopping Releases "Safety and Security Initiatives Report" for the Second Half of 2025

Report Page: https://business-ec.yahoo.co.jp/shopping/safesupport/

Yahoo! Shopping, operated by LINE Yahoo Corporation (hereafter, LINE Yahoo), has released its "Safety and Security Initiatives Report" for the second half of 2025 (July-December). This report summarizes the platform's efforts and achievements in ensuring safety and security. In conjunction with the report, a "Survey on the Safe and Secure Transaction Environment of Yahoo! Shopping" was conducted among its merchants, which has also compiled positive feedback on these initiatives.

Yahoo! Shopping is implementing various initiatives to create the most "safe and secure marketplace" for its merchants, advertisers, partner companies, and users. This report introduces the status of pre- and post-opening store screenings, measures and results against issues like fake reviews and fraudulent payments that are a challenge for the entire market, and new measures initiated in the second half of 2025.

■ Selection of Reliable Stores, Elimination of Inappropriate Stores and Products

Since 2024, Yahoo! Shopping has tightened its two-stage screening process required before stores can begin selling, specifically making the initial store application screening more rigorous. As a result, the approval rate temporarily dropped significantly. However, by continuing to revise parts of the screening process, the approval rate has since stabilized, primarily admitting businesses that can ensure a certain level of reliability.

Furthermore, to strengthen the elimination of inappropriate products, new product categories were added for screening in the second half of 2025. Wireless earphones, which see many counterfeit items, have been designated as a product requiring screening upon sale since September 2025.

■ New Initiatives from the Second Half of 2025

Starting in July 2025, measures were initiated to eliminate malicious businesses that disadvantage legitimately operating merchants by repeatedly placing fictitious orders, and to prevent fraudulent manipulation of the Excellent Store icon and rankings. This helps deter actions that manipulate ratings and display rankings through fake orders, thereby maintaining a fair and just transaction environment.

Additionally, measures against fraud have been strengthened for the "Excellent Delivery" icon, which is awarded for safe and speedy delivery that meets criteria set by Yahoo! Shopping. From December 2025, the input of shipping tracking numbers became mandatory, and a system was introduced to verify these numbers with shipping companies to confirm the reality of deliveries. For businesses found to be engaging in shipping fraud, violation measures will be implemented based on the terms of service, and we will continue to respond strictly to create an environment that users can trust.

■ Deletion of Shopping (Product) Reviews

Yahoo! Shopping is strengthening its response to fraudulent reviews, particularly fake or shill reviews. From February 2025, the deletion of stores' fake reviews was automated by a system, and from June 2025, the deletion of product reviews began in addition to store reviews. In the second half of 2025, 36,454 suspicious store reviews and 360,161 suspicious product reviews were deleted.

■ Introduction of AI-powered Automatic Screening for Fraudulent Payment Countermeasures

As part of its fraudulent payment countermeasures, Yahoo! Shopping began AI-powered automatic screening in December 2025. In addition to conventional fraud detection and measures like EMV 3-D Secure, the introduction of AI-based screening has strengthened the monitoring system. While maintaining the quality of manual screening, the ratio of AI-powered automatic screening has been expanded to 40%, achieving a more advanced screening system. This automates overnight manual screening, realizing a more efficient and stable screening operation. As a result of these comprehensive anti-fraud enhancements, the amount of credit card fraud damage in the second half of 2025 decreased by 64.2% compared to the same period last year.

■ "Survey on the Safe and Secure Transaction Environment of Yahoo! Shopping" for Merchants

Yahoo! Shopping conducted a survey among its merchants regarding the safe and secure transaction environment (*). The results showed that about 60% (56.6%) of stores felt a "sense of security" about the anti-fraud measures, indicating that the security aspects are well-regarded. Additionally, 42.4% cited "being able to use the service with peace of mind" as a reason for continuing to operate on the platform.

Furthermore, 75.7% of respondents reported "almost no difficulty" in their operations due to the enhanced measures, confirming that robust measures are being achieved while suppressing operational burden. Moreover, 38.5% rated the anti-fraud measures as "superior" compared to other companies, with 83.2% of them citing the "low incidence of fraud damage" as the reason.

Positive comments from stores included, "Recently, enforcement has been visibly strengthened, and malicious stores have been cleaned up," "I have never experienced any major trouble related to payments or fraud," and "Although anti-fraud measures and authentication have been strengthened, it rarely causes stress in daily order processing or store operations, and we can ship products with confidence."

*LINE Yahoo survey (Survey period: February 26 - March 4, 2026, Number of respondents: 304 stores on Yahoo! Shopping)

■ Future Initiatives

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2026, Yahoo! Shopping will continue to further enhance its safe and secure transaction environment.

We will prevent fraudulent store openings by reviewing store screening criteria and strengthening identity verification. Additionally, to ensure the proper functioning of "Excellent Delivery," we plan to review its qualification criteria. Furthermore, we will enhance the provision of information regarding guideline violations and strengthen mechanisms to support compliance, thereby creating an environment where stores can operate with peace of mind.

Through these efforts, Yahoo! Shopping will continue to aim to be a mall that is safe and secure for all users and stores.