How Customers Really Feel About Your Fraud-Prevention Measures

The fear of fraud makes perfectly customer-friendly companies do not-quite-so-customer-friendly things. Like adding unnecessary friction to the buying experience. Captcha. Verified by Visa. 3D Secure. Security questions. Customers may understand – at a high level – why a business would make someone jump through these hoops, but that doesn’t mean they like it. Battling fraud barriers can bring up unpleasant feelings.

And customers share these feelings all over Twitter, so everyone can know what a frustrating experience they’re having. Let’s walk through some of the real-world reactions to different companies’ fraud-prevention barriers.

Denial

@AppStore is ridiculous…to buy 1 app that costs £1.50 I have to do Touch ID, enter my password and answer 2 security questions, really?

— Liv Ⓥ (@0liviaMay) December 22, 2014

This can’t be right. Really? Wait, you mean this isn’t a joke?

Impatience

@opskinsgo can i ask how long does it take to verify my identity? Ticket #878141. I really need to buy something right now.

— ML (@Tauren_hunter_y) September 26, 2015

Right now. He wants to buy RIGHT NOW!! And you’re making him wait. Ouch.

Outrage

@PayPal‘s fraud detection and verification is a veritable #TireFire. Can’t believe I have to jump through this many hoops in 2015.

— Zhi (@zqiao88) August 13, 2015

Customers, understandably, have high expectations for their online ordering experiences. Remember dial-up? That’s how your security steps feel.

Violation

I guess @EBGamesAus asks for your credit card statement to verify expensive purchases, not weird or slightly invasive at all

— Nadia Attlee (@DevKimiko) September 8, 2015

There are many ways to get creeped out on the Internet. Overly invasive security checks are just one of them.

Anger

If I ever get my hands on the guy that dreamt up Verified by Visa I’ll make sure to saviour every single second of berating him.

— Peter O’ Dwyer (@peterodwyer1) September 23, 2015

There’s a special type of rage reserved for certain products in the security world.

Sadness

Nothing can ruin your day more than having to verify your identity with passport and rental agreement JUST so you can buy a video game. -_-

— Katie Williams (@desensitisation) February 27, 2015

Who would want to ruin Katie’s day? Some kind of monster?

Blame

No way on earth am I sending an internet store a scan of my passport to “verify identity”, since they can’t verify it. I’ll buy elsewhere.

— Stuart Watt (@morungos) December 22, 2014

Just keep telling yourself that your customers are going to understand that you’re trying to protect both of you. To them, you’re just keeping them away from getting what they want.

Pleading

Online companies: please stop using SecureCard / Verified by Visa. This is why you’re losing out to Amazon!

— Stig Brautaset (@stigbra) September 18, 2015

Stig just wants to help. Really, he does.

And so do we. If you’ve ever worried about losing customers due to overly aggressive security checks, you’re not alone. Sift Science can help. Our machine learning is so accurate that our customers don’t have to make legitimate customers jump through hoops just to buy a sandwich.