7 Facts about Fraud to Remember

The gaming industry grows bigger, and so do fraudsters. According to 2013 Online Fraud Report by CyberSource, online merchants lost $3.5 billion to online fraud in 2012, and what’s worse, this figure has been that high for several years in a row.

Realizing that your game needs a complex anti-fraud tool and finding one is crucial. Fraud prevention is not just about address and card code verification. Instead, it is about a whole range of security measures both, automatic and manual.

If your game does not yet have a fraud detection system, you certainly should consider getting one or at least pay attention to facts signaling fraud.

1. Strange email address. In many games, email address is required to make a purchase. Stay alarmed if the user’s email address has two or more digits. Also, consider double-checking for fraud if the email does not resemble user’s real or game name at all.
2. Time zone differences. If computer and IP address time zones differ, chances are you are facing fraud.
3. Black listed IPs. If the transaction is made from an IP address included in zombie network, spam and other black lists, it is highly likely to be fraudulent.
4. Too many transactions. If you notice that there are multiple purchases of the same item made over a short period of time, stay alarmed. It is also true for purchases of different items made from the same credit card/e-wallet/mobile phone.
5. Set of disabled options. Disabled Javascript, cookies, flash, images — all at once — does not seem like normal user behavior. It is, however, typical of fraudsters who need to complete transactions as quickly and as sneaky as possible.
6. Risky region. It is not a secret that fraud is more common in some regions than in others. Stay alarmed when you see transactions from the risky countries and the ones nearby.
7. Region differences. Consider double-checking for fraud every time you see a credit card transaction made from an IP address different from the country where the card was issued. And check the browser language, too, just in case.

Just a few figures to remember:

• If area code and BIN do not match, the transaction is 2 times more likely to be fraudulent
• If area code, BIN and IP address do not match, the transaction is 4 times more likely to be fraudulent
• If there are several transactions made over a short period of time and the payment amount grows progressively, the transactions are 2 times more likely to be fraudulent.