What type of ecommerce fraud involves cyber-criminals stealing credit card information or testing combinations to execute transactions quickly?

Automated fraud refers to the methods used by cyber-criminals who employ software tools to exploit weaknesses in online payment systems. This type of fraud can include tactics such as using stolen credit card information to execute rapid unauthorized transactions or employing algorithms to test various combinations of credit card numbers and CVV codes to identify valid payment information.

The speed and efficiency of automated fraud enable criminals to carry out multiple transactions in a short time frame, making detection and prevention more challenging for retailers. By automating the process, these criminals can bypass traditional security measures more effectively than they could manually, increasing the scale of their fraudulent activities.

In the context of the other options, while phishing schemes involve tricking individuals into divulging sensitive information, and identity theft focuses on impersonating someone to commit fraud, these tactics do not specifically highlight the automated execution of fraudulent transactions. Data breach attacks, on the other hand, involve unauthorized access to sensitive data, but they do not necessarily imply the rapid testing of stolen credit card information. Hence, automated fraud is the most accurate description of the described activity.