Some criminals apparently took the weekend off after Thanksgiving this year, according to new data from identity verification company Jumio.

The Palo Alto, California-based technology company released data this week showing that the rate of online fraud dropped by 33% between Black Friday and Cyber Monday compared to the same period last year.

According to the company's data, in 2017, the average online fraud rate between Black Friday and Cyber Monday was 0.921% — a third lower than the 1.373% experienced in 2016. The average fraud rate for all of 2017 was 0.993%, meaning that about 1% of all transactions were fraudulent during the entire year; that number was 1.181% in 2016, 1.055% in 2015 and 0.828% in 2014, according to the company. 

Jumio, which conducts ID verifications during account setups, said it compared fraud patterns from several million transactions between 2014 and 2017 across multiple industries.

“While 2017 witnessed the first decline in fraud in four years, no organization should become complacent. Instead, they should continue investing in ID and identity verification solutions to deter fraud and better establish identity, without scaring off good customers,” Jumio Director of Product Management Reinhard Hochrieser said. “Growing tactics like facial scanning and eyeball tracking make it incredibly difficult for fraudsters to mimic someone they're not. And if a business puts up enough hurdles, fraudsters move on to easier online targets.”

For all industries, fraud rates during all of 2017 and between Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year were lower than in 2015 and 2016. But not all industries fared well — especially the financial services sector, which experienced fraud levels well above the norm this year, according to Jumio.

“The overall declines in online fraud should not suggest that all industries are improving to the same degree,” the study noted. “Some sectors, such as financial services, are still experiencing higher-than-average fraud levels. In 2016, the financial services sector experienced a 57.4% spike in fraud during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period (compared to the daily average). In 2017, fraud during this period was still higher than the average, but only by 18.4%.” 

The data showed that in 2017, 1.176% of the financial services industry's transactions between Black Friday and Cyber Monday were fraudulent, compared to 1.859% in 2016 and 1.678% in 2015.

Jumio also reported that fraud using U.S. IDs between Black Friday and Cyber Monday rose 182% from 2014 to 2016. It dropped 29% in 2017 compared to 2016, however.

Other findings from the report:

• In 2017, fraud in financial services was 36.6% higher in the EU than the US.
• In 2017, fraud using European IDs was 8.6% higher than with U.S. IDs.
• In 2017, fraud declined 17.7% for U.S. sharing economy companies, but declined 41.8% in the EU.