Sift Fraud Intelligence Center

Insights, trends, advisories, and analysis from the leader in Digital Trust & Safety

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Fraud attacks in one industry impact every industry.

The Fraud Economy is an interconnected web of fraud and abuse vectors that influence and impact one another. Explore data insights from the Sift global network of 70 billion events per month, representing over 34,000 sites and apps across multiple industries, and learn how cybercriminals leverage the Fraud Economy to target businesses and consumers around the globe.

FRAUD RATES
TARGETED VERTICALS
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Fraud By the Numbers:

Where consumers most frequently encounter fraudulent content

Social Networks

Classifieds

Messaging Apps

Pig Butchering: The Mechanics of the Scam

Click through the timeline to see how the scam works.

Create phony profiles

Scammer creates dozens of phony profiles on dating apps

Swipe
right

Scammer matches with multiple victims

Switch platforms

Conversation moves to a private, encrypted messaging platform

Manipulate Emotionally

Scammer emotionally manipulates victim

Talk
crypto

Conversation turns to crypto investing

Pressure to invest

Scammer convinces victim to invest using fake crypto exchange

Show False Profit

Victim starts seeing false profit and is persuaded to invest more

Steal
Funds

Scammer takes money and ceases communication

Jane Lee, Sift Trust and Safety Architect

Businesses can’t keep turning a blind eye to content abuse. Catching scams on one platform could prevent downstream disasters involving account takeover and financial theft on countless other sites.

Proxy Phantom: The anatomy of a fraud ring

In Q3 2021, the Sift data science team identified and blocked an attack coming from multiple large IP clusters (related groups of internet protocol addresses) across the Sift global network. This interactive visualization illustrates the fraud ring and how it used bots to commit sweeping, large-scale account takeover (ATO) attacks against e-commerce merchants all over the world.

Disclaimer: All personally identifiable information is simulated.

In Q3 2021, the Sift data science team identified and blocked an attack coming from multiple large IP clusters (related groups of internet protocol addresses) across the Sift global network. The video below illustrates the fraud ring and how it used bots to commit sweeping, large-scale account takeover (ATO) attacks against e-commerce merchants all over the world.

FRAUDSTER

TRANSACTION

CREDENTIALS

PAYMENT DETAILS

PROXY SERVER