As the financial world becomes more modernized and embraces digital commerce, the tactics of fraud are evolving — and that means it’s increasingly difficult for organizations to keep up.
Third-party cybersecurity firms are often a company’s best investment for protection and compliance, especially when it comes to banking, online marketplaces, fintech, crypto, online gaming, and gift cards.
Sardine is a behavior-infused platform offering fraud prevention, compliance, and payments solutions across a wide range of industries. The company’s CEO, Soups Ranjan, recently spoke with Convera to break down the state of fraud and highlight tools that can help your business maintain an edge over scammers.
New fraud detection tactics for the digital age
Sardine takes a unique approach to fighting fraud by applying a behavior-infused platform that analyzes financial transactions. This extends beyond just the data itself, encompassing how that data is being processed.
According to Ranjan, the value is in the intrinsic user behaviors that are not able to be learned from online information. Through generative AI and machine learning (ML), that information can be used to flag suspicious transaction requests and prevent fraud.
“How are they typing? Is there pressure, or is it a bot?” Ranjan asks on the Converge podcast. “Are they copy-and-pasting an address, which is a bad signal, or did it get auto-filled, which is a good signal?”
Ranjan says additional user behaviors that can be indicative of fraud include:
- A change in IP addresses
- Using a VPN
- Unusual keystroke patterns
Utilizing such behaviors to measure the integrity of financial transactions can be well worth the few seconds it takes to run the tests — even in today’s age of real-time transactions.
“There’s never a need to do it in milliseconds,” Ranjan says. “Adding six seconds would not be noticed and can include so many checks.”
Solving a problem “as old as money”
While there has never been a shortage of thefts that people are trying to get away with, the digital era presents new challenges in detection because cyber criminals have weaponized bots and algorithms. The good news is we also have the fintech tools to prevent it.
The key, Ranjan says, is keeping up with all the innovations as well as the latest cons that prey on basic human emotions.
“The variety of scams out there [is] just mindboggling,” Ranjan says on the pod, recalling requests from a ‘Nigerian prince’ to someone claiming to have Taylor Swift tickets. Some have used voice manipulation to sound like a family member or deep fakes to appear Elon Musk is recommending a fake cryptocurrency investment.
“Fraud is like white noise — it’s always there,” Ranjan says.
Want more insights on the topics shaping the future of cross-border payments? Tune in to Converge, with new episodes every Wednesday.
*The information shared on this blog is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please note that the opinions expressed on Converge are solely the opinions of the host and the guests, not Convera’s.
