Last week, fraud fighters from all over the world descended on Las Vegas to do what we do best … fight fraud!

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) annual conference was held March 19-22 at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas. With over 1,500 attendees representing 500 companies from 30+ countries, it was a truly impressive event. There was plenty to learn from all of the talks focusing on fraud, payments, and risk in the e-commerce space.

And Sift Science was right there, going to sessions, speaking, participating, and – most importantly – listening to fellow attendees. Here are a few thoughts on what we saw and heard:

Compete with Amazon?

At the end of the day, businesses want to protect and grow their revenue. Much of the fraud-related thinking in years past has centered around protecting. Protecting against chargebacks, against bad actors, and generally against losing revenue.

This year, we started to see the conversation shift toward growth. How can a growing business compete with Amazon’s one-click checkout? How can merchants make it easier for good customers to buy their products? Growth was in the air at MRC, and we’re excited about this shift.

What flavor is your machine learning (ML)?

MRC attendees recognize that fraud-fighting ML comes in all flavors, colors, shapes, and sizes. It’s important that we continue to educate members and attendees about what our version of ML is and how it will help them grow their business, keep chargeback rates low, and prevent account takeover (ATO) today and in the future.

Speaking of which: ATO is on the rise!

And the uptick started in February or March of 2017. We all know that more data breaches result in more account takeover. And we know that breaches are on the rise. Forums such as MRC let us get together to talk to each other about what we’re seeing, and we heard clearly from attendees – ATO isn’t going anywhere, and its effects can be felt across the business.

Build vs. Buy

Our very own Kevin Lee joined Jeff Sakasegawa from Square to discuss when to build a fraud solution and when to bring in outside help. The house was packed, and audience seemed to get a lot of value!

Last but not least: the fraud-fighting accessory pack, brought to you by Sift Science

We debuted some new goodies for conference attendees, and they were a slam dunk!

We hope to see you at MRC Dublin in May, and next year again in Vegas!