How AI Helps Marketplaces Fight Off-Platform Fraud

Fraudsters are starting off the new decade armed with the stolen data and credentials of millions of global consumers, and they are already putting that data to use. Today’s fraudsters are practiced and well-equipped, making proper data and consumer identification a must to maintain a successful business in any industry.

Firms must know how to divide fraudsters from their legitimate business suppliers, vendors and end customers. However, to do so, these companies will need to make some adjustments to their fraud protection strategies. Implementing a layered anti-fraud approach that utilizes several technologies could help protect against bad actors looking for vulnerabilities.

In the latest Merchant Fraud Decisioning Playbook, PYMNTS examines how fraud threats in industries such as advertising and the sharing economy are growing, and how businesses and their fraud protection providers can counter the latest trends.

The Latest Fraud Decisioning Developments

One industry seeing an exponential rise in fraud is advertising, warding against fraud on legitimate publishing sites, with illegitimate publishers charging them for false web traffic and ad clicks. Advertisers were expected to lose between $5.8 billion and $42 billion to fraudsters in 2019, according to some reports. While that final figure has yet to be quantified, protecting against further fraud in 2020 will be a top priority for the industry.

Fraudsters are also quite happy to disguise themselves online in other ways, and in other industries. Many cybercriminals will craft identities to promote themselves as suppliers or vendors, with the intent of draining funds from legitimate businesses. Trade finance and supply chain digitalization company Tradeshift has partnered with fraud protection solutions firm SiS to ward against this, developing a solution that uses blockchain technology for more robust identity verification.

Experimentation with biometrics and other behavioral analysis tools is also advancing. Biometric authentication solutions provider BehavioSec is among those innovating its products for more protection, announcing upgrades to its behavioral biometrics platform surrounding customer authentication and other verification safeguards. The platform now offers real-time authentication, as well as fraud detection tools that examine voice and other biometric factors.

For more on this and other stories, visit the Playbook’s News & Trends section.

RVShare Uses AI, Machine Learning To Preserve Owner And Renter Trust

Trust is an essential factor for business interactions of any sort, but this is especially true now that most of these interactions happen online. Participants in the sharing economy must be sure they are buying or selling goods to another trusted party, and it is the job of the platforms that enable these connections to make that the case. That is why RV sharing platform RVshare is utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to protect both RV renters and owners, said company CEO Jon Gray in a recent interview with PYMNTS.

To learn more about how RVShare is using AI for greater trust, visit the Tracker’s feature story.

A Multi-Layered Fraud Approach Critical To Consumer Data Protection

Many fraudsters are still relying on old tricks to slip onto the platforms that are constantly developing new tools and technologies to keep them out. Synthetic identity theft — and all its subsequent fraud events — remains a treasured tactic among cybercriminals, and even today’s AI has trouble detecting it. These fraudsters, on average, take about 12 to 18 months to build out false identities that can fool many of the anti-fraud measures in use. That is why firms cannot rely on only one technology or anti-fraud tool to protect their customers’ data.

For more on why a multi-layered fraud protection strategy is crucial for today’s businesses, visit the Playbook’s Deep Dive.

About The Playbook

The Merchant Fraud Decisioning Playbook, a PYMNTS and Simility collaboration, is a monthly report highlighting how eCommerce merchants, financial institutions and other businesses are embracing fraud-decisioning solutions to reduce chargebacks and account takeovers, enabling secure and seamless experiences for legitimate users.