In this edition:

• 3 strategies for elevating fraud prevention internally
• Highlights from Incognia’s new Device Identity Frontline Report

3 strategies for elevating fraud prevention internally

By André Ferraz, CEO and Co-Founder at Incognia

You understand the value of your fraud prevention team’s work.

But how do you get others in your company to recognize it? Especially your executives?

Here are 3 strategies you need to be using:

1. Simplify your communication.

You know fraud like the back of your hand. But your audience doesn’t. So bring it down a level and help them understand.

Use simple terms, and avoid using technical fraud jargon.

And don’t forget, there’s one universal language that everyone in your company understands: money.

Whenever possible, translate fraud language to real business value, ideally with a dollar amount attached to it.

2. Bring good news, not just bad news.

At some companies, people only hear from the fraud prevention team when there’s a problem. But you want them to associate you with good news, not just bad.

That’s why you need to proactively communicate your team’s wins and how you’ve contributed to the bottom line.

When your team stops a large amount in fraud losses, boosts revenue by increasing approval rates, or optimizes marketing budget by reducing promotion abuse…

Make sure your colleagues know.

3. Develop your fraud storytelling ability.

Storytelling can be a superpower for a fraud fighter. Brian Davis from Dodgeball talked about this on a webinar I presented with him recently.

Your internal stakeholders may not fully understand the implications when you share some fraud data with them or highlight a win your team had.

So take them on a journey:

1. Before coming into the conversation, put yourself in their shoes.
2. Consider what they know (and don’t know) about fraud.
3. Think about how what you’re about to share could tie to their personal objectives.
4. Reflect on the conclusion you want them to reach after hearing what you have to say.
5. Use that knowledge to help you build a story that has the desired impact.

If you develop this skill, it could make a big difference in your career in fraud prevention.

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You and I know that fraud fighters are a critical part of your company’s success.

Use the 3 strategies I outlined above to get everyone else at your company on the same page.

Watch André's recent webinar that goes deeper into this topic:

🎥 Fraud Prevention: Cost Center or Profit Center?

Highlights from Incognia's new report

We’ve seen a lot of fraud, and collected a lot of data about it. In 2023, Incognia performed 3.74 billion risk assessments for functions like account creation, login, and transactions. 

In our new Device Identity Frontline Report, we share some of the insights we uncovered last year. Here are a few highlights:

Out of 3.7B risk assessments, 6.5% indicated a high risk for fraud

Most users and transactions are good. But when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands or even millions of monthly active users, a 6.5% high risk assessment rate could still add up to a lot of fraud, so it’s important that you have robust detection in place. In this report, we share some of the high risk indicators we detected most often in 2023 that allowed us to catch this risky activity.

​​35% of locations linked with fraud had multiple devices in them that engaged in fraud

The popular image of a fraudster might look like a lone wolf in a basement wearing a hoodie, but that’s not always the case. Fraudsters today are often organized—they may treat fraud operations like a job, and they might even work in teams.

Over a month-long period of analysis, we found that 35% of locations associated with fraud contained multiple devices that engaged in fraud. Whether that’s a team of fraudsters working together or one person leveraging multiple devices, it points to the fact that the ability to recognize suspicious locations and proactively block new activity from them can be a powerful advantage in the fight against fraud.

1M+ devices detected location spoofing in 1 month

Here’s a rare thing Incognia and fraudsters agree on: Where you are can say a lot about who you are.

That’s why fraudsters spoof their location to hide their identity and evade detection while they abuse platform policies. In a one-month period, we detected over a million devices engaging in location spoofing. On food delivery apps, this might be drivers artificially extending their routes to inflate their pay. On online gaming platforms, fraudsters use location spoofing to collude and cheat in skill-based games. Location spoofing detection is the key to stopping this type of fraud.

Incognia, a digital identity company, detects fake account creation and account takeover attempts for gig economy, marketplace, and financial technology applications. Benefits of using Incognia’s location-based digital identity include reduced false positives and a low friction user experience.