Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be behind us, but the holiday shopping rush has only just begun. Between now and January 1, millions of people will order gifts for family and friends online and on mobile. Last year, the sharp uptick in holiday shopping was accompanied by a 22% increase in ecommerce fraud. If […]
It’s the Fraudiest Time of the Year for Travelers
Visiting family for the holidays? So is everyone else. Last year, a record-shattering 107 million people traveled between Thanksgiving and New Year. In December and early January, travel spiked by 20%. That’s millions of people booking flights, grabbing hotels, and buying train tickets. A good chunk of these transactions happen on “Travel Tuesday,” the day […]
The Battle for Frictionless Checkout
It’s one of the most dreaded paradoxes of running an online business. Customers want to get from the buy button to the “track shipment” page with as few steps as possible. But they also want businesses to keep their data secure. They’ll abandon their cart if the checkout page requires repeated identity verification…but they also […]
Content Abuse: Challenges and Evolutions
The war on content abuse is getting harder to win. In fact, content abuse has become so sophisticated that within four years, people might see fake information online more often than real information. It’s not just fake product reviews or social media comments, either. Even fake videos are starting to permeate the internet. Any online […]
Peer-to-Peer Payments: Sending Money to Friends and Fraudsters Is Easier Than Ever
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payment platforms have skyrocketed in popularity in the past few years as more people move to cash alternatives. More than 75% of Millennials have used online or mobile P2P payments, followed by 69% of Gen X and 51% of Baby Boomers. Aite and Early Warning, owner of the P2P platform Zelle, have found […]
Who Scams the Scammers? What We can Learn from Fraud Vigilantes
You’re probably already familiar with some of the folks who spend their days fighting fraud. For example, fraud analysts at e-commerce companies who do battle against scammers, or businesses like Sift Science that are using innovative approaches to cut down on fraud. But there’s a shadow industry of fraud fighters who are also working quietly […]
[Podcast] Blockchain, Crypto, and the Future of Fraud
Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain represent a new frontier — one that’s wrought with regulatory and fraud challenges. New coin offerings pop up all the time, each decentralized and shrouded in risk. How do you safely transact with a form of currency that people struggle even to define? Coinbase is trying to do just that. The […]
3 Tactics Fraudsters Have Learned from Fraud Fighters
Most fraud fighters have one thing in common: they’re curious. They’re constantly learning, observing fraudsters’ tactics and evolving in response. But what if fraudsters are doing the same thing? According to Brett Johnson, a former FBI Most Wanted hacker, this isn’t a hypothetical. Brett says cybercriminals have started to learn from fraud fighters. “It’s important […]
[Podcast] Content Moderation: Best Practices
User-generated content (UGC) is the lifeblood of online marketplaces and communities. When someone posts fraudulent, abusive, or spammy content on your site, it doesn’t just look bad: it’s a visible, public indication that your business isn’t safe. Content abuse hurts your brand and hits your bottom line. Content moderators are often the first line of […]
[Infographic] The 9 Flavors of Content Spam
Remember email spam? It used to be the scourge of the inbox, drowning out legitimate messages with sketchy offers for cheap pills and fast loans. But thanks to machine learning, these days you rarely see an unsolicited ad or offer pop up in email. The bad news? Instead, scammers have moved on to plague communities, […]