In this latest edition of our Digital Trust & Safety Roundup, we share the key takeaways from our live session with Forrester, insights from our time at SiGMA Malta, and how Sift is uniquely positioned to support the iGaming industry. We also highlight the rise of “fraud influencers” on social media and introduce FIBR, Sift’s groundbreaking Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource, which allows businesses to compare their fraud rates against industry averages.
Fighting fraud with insights from Forrester
Recently, Sift CMO Armen Najarian spoke with Andras Cser, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research during a live discussion about selecting the right digital fraud management partner. With businesses facing a 345% year-over-year increase in account takeover attacks, choosing the right fraud prevention solution is critical protecting consumers throughout the user journey, from account creation to chargeback.
The discussion also focused on the process for vendor inclusion criteria for The Forrester Wave™: Digital Fraud Management report. Sift was named the only independent Leader in the report, with 5/5 ratings in the chargeback management, nonpayment fraud and policy abuse, and roadmap criteria.
The webinar also covered best practices for choosing the criteria in a Digital Fraud Management (DFM) solution, including having a comprehensive risk scoring system, integration of ML and AI technologies, clear rules, regular reporting, and weekly fraud detection assessments.
Read more key takeaways from the webinar with Forrester.
Keeping iGaming players safe
The Sift team recently attended SiGMA Malta, a gathering of over 25,000 professionals in the iGaming and online gambling industry. During the conference, Sift Trust and Safety Architect Brittany Allen led a panel on preventing fraud while reducing friction for customers and the team attended sessions and discussions on the key issues in iGaming.
Overall, discussions at SiGMA Malta highlighted the need for a balanced approach between improving player experiences and mitigating fraud risks, with a clear need for data-driven insights and real-time strategies for implementing effective fraud solutions.
In addition to attending the event in Malta, Brittany Allen was interviewed by iGaming Business (iGB) about the risks faced by iGaming operators and the strategies that businesses in the industry need to implement to keep their revenue and their players safe. Brittany highlighted the role that technology that plays both in mitigating fraud and its ability to spread:
“Advancements in technology have come a long way to aid fraud teams, but cybercriminals are getting more skilled at weaponising that same tech to bypass businesses’ preventative security measures. We’re seeing a widespread democratisation of fraud, which refers to the increasing accessibility and ease with which anyone, regardless of technical experience, can engage in fraudulent activities.”
You can read the full interview with Brittany via iGB.
A new breed of online ‘influencer’ focuses on fraud
The rise of a new breed of scammers is evident on social media platforms, with one in four consumers encountering offers to engage in online account takeover schemes, according to Sift’s recent survey. These fraudsters actively promote and sell fraudulent tactics on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, signaling a disturbing shift in the landscape of fraud, Brittany Allen, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift, recently revealed in a FastCompany article. Similar to other social media influencers, these ‘fraud influencers’ use their platforms to showcase their success in fraudulent activities to attract and recruit aspiring scammers.
“Fraudsters will highlight their gains from running a ‘method’ and share teasers of specific methods to recruit new bad actors and drive them to encrypted platforms like Telegram,” writes Allen. “Once directed to these less public forums, they operate groups in which individuals can purchase a range of materials to support fraudulent activity—including ‘fraud bibles’ (a collection of instructions for committing fraud), accounts for sale, credit cards with personally identifiable information, etc.”
Read Brittany’s full article in FastCompany to learn more about these ‘fraud influencers’ and why businesses should pay attention when it comes to their fraud prevention efforts.
FIBR, the definitive fraud benchmarking resource powered by Sift
In light of constantly evolving fraud and emerging threats, one question that has consistently come up among Sift customers has been how to compare their fraud rates to peers in their industry. As a response to this demand, and the lack of an existing resource in the market, Sift unveiled its own benchmarking tool. Introducing FIBR, powered by Sift—the first Fraud Industry Benchmarking Resource of its kind.
This free, online resource empowers users in the risk space by providing unprecedented access to data-driven insights. Using FIBR, fraud and risk professionals can benchmark their business’s fraud rates against industry averages, specifically payment fraud attack rates, fraudulent chargeback rates, and manual review rates.
Customers who are already using the resource are seeing its benefit, especially during the busy holiday season:
“As the holiday shopping season kicks into full gear, having the right benchmarking data in place can be enormously helpful for our team,” said TJ Stein, Head of Customer Experience at online clothing retailer Everlane. “By accessing FIBR, we can gain insights for our industry and across the whole Sift network, maintain best practices for fraud prevention, and ensure we reduce friction for our customers.”
Explore FIBR here to compare fraud data by industry or region and read more about its capabilities in Fintech Finance.