Fraudsters and scammers target online dating, gaming, and virtual goods web sites with stolen credit cards and hijacked credentials. Social networking web sites have to protect their members in order to grow and retain their membership — which translates to growing revenue. Dating sites need to keep off-shore scammers from creating bogus “flirty” accounts to prey on good members. Fraudsters are highly skilled and extremely patient at gaining the trust of unsuspecting members in order to recruit them as a “mules” to transfer stolen goods or funds. Membership sites are also targeted by fraudsters to test stolen credit cards in bulk so they can sell them at a premium.
Social gaming fraudsters use bots to automate the process of opening many fraudulent new accounts and to exploit repetitive elements in a game (gold farming) so they can build up a pile of in-game currency and items — then try to sell their virtual “gold” in exchange for real-world currency. A key challenge for online gaming sites is offering customers a hassle-free user experience while protecting against fraud.
Account takeover or “hijacking” poses a serious threat to all types of social networks because of the consequences a member suffering from a ruined reputation when a scammer logs in as a legitimate member and runs amok. Since authentication in social networks is quite exposed, this poses a serious problem that is more difficult to address than fighting fraudulent new accounts.
Top ThreatMetrix Benefits:
- Bypass hidden proxies to know the true geolocation of the visitor’s device
- Save time and money: verify customers, authorize transactions and authenticate users
- See risk in a global context using the ThreatMetrix Fraud Network of worldwide devices and web transactions
- Flexible risk engine with customizable risk scoring optimized for social networks
