Fraud-fighting is the ultimate balancing act.

On one side, you have risk – in the form of fraudsters, scammers, and other bad actors looking to leverage any opening they can to exploit your business for their own gain. On the other side, you have the goal of optimizing user experience – a priority for any modern online business that wants to exceed expectations and stay ahead of the pack. And layered on top is the ongoing complexity of keeping operations as efficient as possible. So, what do you prioritize?

For the second year in a row, we surveyed online businesses to understand more about what’s on fraud-fighters’ minds. What they’re most concerned about. What types of attacks they’re seeing. Where they’re focusing their energy. How they’re adapting their strategy.

We heard from more than 200 online businesses actively fighting fraud and abuse. Among the findings: while more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents are worried about losing money to fraud, near the same amount (72%) are concerned about turning away good customers. In this delicate balancing act, both sides seem to demand equal priority.

Check out our infographic to find out more:

Download the Sift Science Fraud-Fighting Trends 2017 infographic

It doesn’t hurt to dream…

We all do the best with the tools we’ve got, but what about the tools that don’t exist (yet)? To add some color to our focus on quantifying fraud and abuse, we asked respondents to imagine what qualities they would like to see in their ideal fraud-fighting tool. Here’s a sampling of what they said:

Technologically advanced

“Retina scan built into a credit card, submitted via bluetooth, via phone.”

“Artificial intelligence + voice recognition + face recognition.”

Synced up

“A tool that integrates with local law enforcement so fraudulent activity could be prosecuted.”

“Makes it easy for you to verify credit card holders’ data with banks.”

Attractive

“The worldwide equivalent of 3D secure, just much better UX.”

“One of those big touch screens that they have in movies/tv that shows tons of information for investigating fraudsters.”

Punishing

“A tool that would troll fraudsters with an endless loop of personal information questions, verification emails, and passive-aggressive encouragement to keep going.”

“Digital German shepherd with gigantic teeth.”

Downright magical

“Classifier with 100% precision and 100% recall.”

“An all seeing eye that knows what everyone looks like and can tell that someone else is using their card.”

Here’s to the future!

Related topics

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