Digital Trust & Safety Roundup: Highlights from MPE Berlin, spotting scams, fighting first-party fraud, and Sift’s new customer community

We look back on a busy April—read our Digital Trust & Safety Roundup below for the latest fraud-related news, what we learned at MPE Berlin, Visa’s new rules for merchants, and exciting developments at Sift.

Takeaways from MPE Berlin

Sift once again joined more than 1,300 merchant payment industry leaders from all over the globe at MPE Berlin to learn, network, and discuss shared opportunities and challenges. 

In addition to attending a variety of sessions and presentations, Sift Trust and Safety Architect Brittany Allen presented a keynote focused on the types of fraud targeting gaming and gambling companies, sharing the key considerations for keeping operators and gamers safe: 

“You need to make sure you’re not just verifying an identity, but you’re verifying the identity. It’s too easy to say ‘this is a real name, it matches the birth date’ but it’s actually not the individual behind the account,” said Allen. “We’ll see people be used as mules who are willing to open new accounts and go through KYC checks on gaming and gambling platforms. But just because they’re the ones who are taking that action and using their identity to complete that, doesn’t mean they’re the ones who are going to continue using that account. We really need to keep in focus at all times who the person is within an account taking those actions.”

Discover key takeaways from these sessions, as well as the emerging fraud trends discussed at the conference in this blog post. 

Spotting spam and scams

Spam and scams, especially those involving social engineering tactics perpetrated over text or email, are increasingly common. These scams are successful in tricking unsuspecting consumers into giving away their personal information to criminals, opening the doors to account takeovers and payment fraud. Unfortunately, recognizing these scams has become more challenging as fraudsters find new and convincing ways to appear legitimate.

While companies play a key role in protecting their customers from the scams and fraudulent activity on their sites, consumer education is also essential in the fight against fraud. Kevin Lee shared the key warning signs that signal an email or text scam in GoBankingRates and how to spot a scam when online shopping in ConsumerAffairs.       

Fighting fraudulent disputes with Visa

Visa launched its new compelling evidence rules on April 15, expanding the type of documentation that merchants can provide when challenging fraudulent disputes. With the rate of fraudulent chargebacks rising year over year, the new rules are intended to give merchants a better chance of preventing revenue loss from the rising tide of friendly fraud. Some businesses, however, may struggle to take advantage of the new guidelines.

“More stringent and involved evidence requirements may be challenging and time-consuming to gather, especially since response times will not increase,” Sift’s Kevin Lee explained in American Banker. “This means merchants who have automated systems will have a significant advantage over those who rely on manual review.”

Read more about the potential impact of Visa’s new rules on merchants in this Q&A with Kevin Lee. 

A new approach to fraud prevention

Online fraud has evolved into a vast and complex threat landscape, with cybercriminals leveraging communication channels and technology to improve the speed, scale, and success of their attacks. But while the world of fraud has changed, many organizations’ fraud prevention strategies remain stuck in the past, with siloed teams, disconnected data, and ineffective operations. Mary Writz, SVP of Product at Sift, recently wrote about the importance of merging a company’s anti-fraud, identity, and cybersecurity efforts in the fight against fraud:

“To improve an organization’s overall security posture, business, IT, and fraud leaders must realize that their areas shouldn’t be treated as separate line items. Ultimately, these three disciplines serve the same purpose—protecting the business—and they must converge. This is a simple statement, but complex in practice, due mainly to the array of people, strategies, and tooling today’s organizations have built.” 

Read the full article in Dark Reading. 

The power of a human network in the fight against fraud

Popular culture often portrays cybercriminals as lone actors, hiding in the darkness, but the success of the modern-day fraudster relies on a network of online communities on the deep and dark web, where they can collaborate, share, and learn from others, much like industry colleagues in a legitimate profession. Fortunately for Sift customers, the launch of Sift’s new customer community platform, Sifters, offers a space for fraud fighters to do the same, joining a global network of risk professionals looking to share, learn, and collaborate.

“Fraudsters have been working together for years and it’s time fraud and risk professionals had an online community space of our own,” said Rob McCall, Director of Fraud at Uphold, a Sift customer. “Being able to connect with both the Sift team and other customers is a major value-add and I’m excited to see the Sifters community grow into a true collaboration hub for our industry.”

Learn more about the new community in our latest blog post. 

Fraud and identity veteran joins Sift

Further growing our human network of fraud experts and leaders, Sift was delighted to welcome Armen Najarian, who brings more than 20 years of marketing expertise in the fraud and identity space, as the new Chief Marketing Officer. 

“The fraud prevention market is crowded with point solutions whose incentives are misaligned with their customers,” Najarian said last month. “Sift’s heritage in machine learning, its unparalleled global data network, and focus on transparency and control for customers are unique–and incredibly valuable. We have an impressive foundation to build from and important work to do for both our customers and the ecosystem at large.”

Armen shared his thoughts on what drew him to Sift and what motivates him about the industry in this blog post.