Black Friday, Cyber Monday: time to turn fraud patterns into disorder

 Attila Dogan, Head of Risk, Adyen: With all these data breaches, it’s tempting to treat every transaction as suspicious

Don’t overreact: Block fraudsters, not shoppers. With all these data breaches, it’s tempting to treat every transaction as suspicious. But this comes at the cost of your conversion rates. The answer lies in a granular approach to fraud defense. Device fingerprinting and transaction linking lets you monitor transactions across devices, networks, and online personas. So even if the fraudster has the right email and card details, you can spot a fake device ID or blacklisted IP address.

Use omnichannel data. Omnichannel data will show you which shoppers are visiting your stores, and which are visiting your ecommerce site. This will prevent you from inadvertently blocking online shoppers who had previously spent USD 1,000s in store. You can also create heat maps which will reveal patterns to help you detect potential fraud.

Adjust your risk settings to allow for holiday shopping. Shopper behaviour is likely to change during this busy period. People buy more regularly, and tend to spend more per transaction, which may trigger your risk settings. Avoid blocking these shoppers, and to keep your false positives to a minimum by adjusting transaction velocity thresholds.

Richard Brown is a Fraud and Payment Analyst for Superdry. He knows only too well the challenges that come with this busy season: “There is a lot to consider when preparing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas - including the inevitable increase in fraud. Adyen helps us maintain the balance between blocking fraudsters and approving our genuine shoppers so we can be sure our sales are maximized during this peak period.”

Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of Kount: With the best data, merchants can successfully beat fraud and boost sales

Data is at the core of fighting off fraudsters. Merchants that are succeeding in identifying fraudulent orders versus good orders, point to the data collected at the time of the transaction and analysis of historical data as the main elements contributing to the positive outcome. Granular data, relating to each aspect of a transaction, reveals a host of information and analytics within milliseconds, providing merchants with everything necessary to accept or decline the purchase. Historical data provides context to the data and allows merchants insight into broader fraudulent acts. Location, buying patterns, card used, origination device, and many other types of data analytics are collected to assess the order.

In recent years, during these retail-oriented events, Kount has helped merchants and partners identify specific fraud tactics that continue to be staples of today’s fraud practices for unprepared merchants. A couple of examples include the use of proxy servers to provide fraudsters with a local IP address. The ability to pierce the server to identify the true location is key to understanding the true intent of the purchaser. Order linking is a key technology to identifying the use of different cards, devices and email addresses.

Merchants are in a constant battle to stay ahead of the fraudsters and their latest techniques. Implementing the right fraud strategy and solution allows merchants to enjoy more holiday sales, less holiday fraud, stronger customer relationships and continued sales throughout the year.

We wish you all a very happy shopping season!