Next Level Commerce: Staying Up on Fraud Prevention through Pandemic-Inspired Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for retailers, but many of them rose to the occasion with solutions that made it possible to keep running their business while keeping their employees and customers safe.

Unfortunately, where there is commerce, there will almost always be crime, and the pandemic gave fraudsters other avenues to pursue, said Rich Stuppy, Vice President & Senior Customer Experience Leader at Kount, an Equifax Company. Some businesses were already up and running with the necessary fraud protection, but many who adapted quickly haven’t had their security system catch up.

“Those that were relatively new to it and had, let’s say, a toe in the water. They had to move forward quickly as a matter of survival, and they hadn’t plumbed in the controls, the signal detection, the things you need to do to protect yourself from fraud and cyber security events in this digital space,” he said. “So, they learned some very painful lessons and learned them quickly. I think because of the never-ending game of cat and mouse that happens in fraud, fraud control, criminals and cyber security, you’re never ‘there.’ You’re always on the journey and getting a harder, stronger, tougher target.”

One of the best things to consider when thinking about fraud and risk needs is mapping out a customer journey, Stuppy said.

“When you think about it in terms of the journey, and you’re balancing customer experience with fraud and cyber security, that’s a completely different story than, ‘I’m rolling out a product, and I’m going to see what happens,’” he said. “Because, I can guarantee you, the fraudsters and the organized criminals are looking for those new changes, and they’re going to probe those new changes. You might not think there’s a lot of value in there, but they have an excellent methodology for testing those customer journey steps and finding the places that don’t have the controls and signal collection.”

Kount’s robust solutions for payment protection and protection around fraud, risk and loss made it an ideal partner for FreedomPay, especially with the ability to scale to work with the smallest ecommerce operator up to some of the largest corporations in the world.

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