In the latest SBC Webinar, IDnow duo Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk – Director of Global Gaming of IDnow – and Lovro Persen – Director of Document and Fraud at IDnow were joined by moderator Pavel Dergachev as he underlined the importance of putting yourself in the attacker’s shoes, in order to combat their strategies.
Redfearn-Tyrzyk detailed that gaining a deeper understanding of how they behave and when they intend to attack, can strengthen the fraud-fighting approach significantly.
He said: “What we have to look at first is ‘what is the aim’ of the fraudsters, and put yourself into their shoes. If you look at every market across the globe there is a lot more regulation around for example bonuses, and new player signing-on processes.
“Bonus abuse is still very high but also less and less as the technology that suppliers are providing is getting better.”
“If you look at an example with bonus abuse there are many different things in order to prevent it such as the advice of printing which is the main thing that you can do because fraudsters will set up many different accounts in different names, but use the same documents and just change the name, but we have many different strategies to detect this.”
Redfearn-Tyrzyk goes into further detail of how fraud prevention firms such as IDnow are also helping to prevent money laundering activities during the onboarding process, as well as the welcomed evolution of technology and how it has played a pivotal role in stamping out fraudsters.
The IDnow Director of Global Gaming also let viewers into some of the more sophisticated measures of tracking down fraudsters, such as tracing phone SIM cards and when they were installed, along with multiple vectors tracking personal information to see if it aligns properly.
Persen highlights the “millions and millions” of attacks that occur each year in varying sectors ranging from gambling to fintech and more, and outlines some of the geographical locations where fraudsters are based.
IDnow’s Director of Document and Fraud identified African countries as those leading the world in hosting fraud attacks.
The conversation moved onto the importance of evolving tech and machine learning and how they are working to help mitigate document fraud.
“What we are seeing lately is one of the main common types of fraud is using the document holder to open thousands of accounts from the same silo of devices. This can be detected with adequate tools to authenticate that something is seriously wrong with this transaction,” added Persen.
“On the other end you have someone with a genuine document who is an imposter and it’s fairly easily detectable on the fairley automated solutions to pick up for simple biometric checks.
“The problem is that machines are much better than humans to detect this kind of fraud.”
But Dergachev highlights a key potential stumbling block for operators and other firms seeking to amplify their anti-fraud and AML measures, the time-consuming, intricate and expensive process it brings.
“For any company the most expensive one (system) is the one that you don’t catch”, according to Persen, who advises a combination of systems to create an orchestration of varying APIs and machine learning algorithms to work as one to help combat multiple threats.
Persen continues: “The other thing that is frustrating for me, for the last 20 years when I was working in the police, all of us who are fighting fraud we know we cannot win the battle.
“We try and make their lives miserable, but we also know there are always new types of fraud and have to catch up. This is why it is important knowledge for your company to bring with it.”
But how do companies and operators not only make the right decision by selecting an anti-fraud service provider, but also become satisfied with their product?
That is the ultimate question, says Redfearn-Tyrzyk, as he delves into why it is a welcoming challenge to have multiple verification measures to work in unison.
“What you are trying to do is build a layer of anti-fraud detectors. It has to always be a healthy mixture of verification methods, especially when you look at what the market wants and needs, some countries are more prone to fraud and data attacks than others.
“Finding a balance between your good players to make it difficult for fraudsters is a challenge we have had now in the gambling industry since forever, so we are catching up to things what people are doing.”
One sentiment coming out of the webinar was reiterated by both Redfearn-Tyrzyk and Persen, which is that fraud prevention companies are always seemingly on the catch-up to the fraudsters.
As technology evolves, so do fraud attacks, but in turn, so do fraud prevention capabilities and methods in what feels like a never-ending cat and mouse game.
However, for companies, whether that be gambling or payments firms, it is a necessity to implement some form of anti-fraud and AML protection service in order to protect the business and mitigate any harm that can be done to company reputation.
To watch the full SBC Webinar, click here
