'Net Features : fraud

LinkTrust Helps in the Fight Against Fraud

Michael Garrity — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Some affiliate marketers have to spend so much time fighting off fraudsters, they probably feel like Batman. And, like The Dark Knight, they don’t have to worry about taking on these rogues all alone.

One trusty ally in this on-going struggle is LinkTrust, the affiliate tracking and affiliate program software provider that is unveiling a number of new ways to combat fraud as part of a huge feature release coming out this fall.

A part of this new feature set is a Transaction Details API, which will help make everything from marketing analytics to fraud detection a much simpler process. In this case, it works seamlessly with three top-notch fraud analytics and prevention companies, CPA Detective, Fraudlogix and ScrubKit, who can help clients study their traffic to uncover, eliminate and prevent affiliate and transaction fraud. LinkTrust customers only have to enable Transaction Details in their API rights to start using it right away.

The company is also giving its clients affiliate- and campaign-centric ID (CACID) numbers. Assigning IDs on an affiliate or campaign basis (and adding a [=CACID=] token to a campaign’s landing page URL) lets LinkTrust send the ID to an affiliate’s merchant partner. Normally, these merchants have to have their own CRM ID passed back to them in order to track a customer’s purchasing history and facilitate accurate recurring commissions for affiliates.

LinkTrust is also offering new email templates that make communicating with affiliates much faster and more efficient. Clients can create customized affiliate email temples that can be used by everyone within a company, so they can all be on the same page and won’t waste anymore time typing or pasting email messages from files on their desktops.

And last, but not least, LinkTrust is showing campaign groups on campaign performance reports.

Trying to ward off fraud can be a demanding task for affiliates, but with the right tools, and the right partners, it can be a considerably easier. They’ve just got to know who they can trust.

Survey Reveals Online Fraud Concerns

Allison Howen — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:30:00 GMT

According to a new survey, one-third of consumers claim that they will make more purchases online than in stores this holiday shopping season, but many are wary of online fraud.

The “Mobile Payments and Online Shopping Survey of U.S. Consumers” was conducted by ThreatMetrix, a provider of cloud-based fraud prevention solutions, and The Ponemon Institute, an independent research company. According to the survey, 53 percent of consumers have some concerns about online fraud, while 26 percent have serious concerns about it. Additionally, 43 percent claim that they have been a victim of online fraud.

With more avenues such as mobile and tablets through which consumers can shop online this year, merchants must make sure their sites are secure in every aspect.

“While consumers continue to show a preference for the convenience of shopping and browsing online, their concerns about becoming a victim of online fraud is also growing,” says Bert Rankin, vice president of marketing, ThreatMetrix. “With mobile thrown into the shopping mix, which is even more apparent this year, consumers and retailers alike need to be well equipped against fraudsters in every possible channel.”

Shockingly, nearly one in three consumers believe that fraud is less likely to happen on a smartphone or tablet than on a desktop or laptop. Additionally, even more of the “elite” respondents, at 39 percent, think that fraud is less likely on a smartphone or tablet. Elite respondents are defined as consumers that are extremely active users of the Internet.

But should consumers have this sense of security when it comes to mobile and tablets? According to senior fraud and risk analyst from Aite Group, Julie Conroy McNelley, malware is a big business that is growing rapidly. Furthermore, online transactions go two ways. Although a consumer may think they are taking precautions, the merchant that they are purchasing from must also be taking precautions to secure private information.

“Mobile, in particular, is difficult to protect from fraud,” says McNelley. “With around 4,000 different device types to secure, it’s often a daunting task. On top of that, few consumers are using anti-virus or anti-spyware software on their mobile devices. Mobile, just like more traditional e-commerce transactions from a desktop, has the potential to become a hotbed for fraud.”

So how can merchants ease their customers’ fraud fears before Cyber Monday? Aside from making sure their site is as secure as possible, 84 percent of respondents say that merchants can ease their fears this holiday season by communicating a commitment to protect consumers against online fraud.

Fraud Protection for Affiliate Program Software

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:21:00 GMT

Affiliate network Share Results has made several important upgrades to its affiliate marketing software aimed at providing merchants greater control over their marketing campaigns. The new features will extend to both merchants within the affiliate network and those powering their own standalone program with the Share Results software.

The new version (4.5) of the Share Results affiliate marketing software most notably includes a new fraud alert tool, which allows merchants to keep track of fraudulent activity and manage accounts suspected of fraud. Affiliate managers will be able to see which affiliates have been flagged for suspicious activity - a valuable boost to aid in monitoring the performance of publishers/affiliates.

Two other tools/features from this release include a new Deep Link tool, which allows affiliates to customize landing-page URLS for individual creatives, and co-branded pages, which provide merchants with the affiliate to include a "variety of new fields that can be customized" in order to target affiliates for their programs.

"These new features offer merchants partnered with Share Results more control over their marketing efforts," said Nicky Senyard, CEO of Share Results. "While the new features allow merchants to increase ROI, the new co-branded pages offer our network partners more control over their recruitment."

CyberSource Online Fraud Report

Administrator — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:44:00 GMT

For Internet retailers, fraud represents perhaps the most significant and growing cost for merchants regardless of their size. CyberSource, an eCommerce payment management solution, has released their ninth annual online fraud report and the findings are, well, frightening and discouraging to say the least.

From the overview: Over the past few years the percent of online revenues lost to payment fraud has been slowly declining from 1.8% in 2004 to 1.4% this year. However, total losses from online payment fraud in the U.S. and Canada have steadily increased during this time as eCommerce has continued to grow 20% or more each year.1 In 2007, we estimate that $3.6 billion in online revenues will be lost to online fraud — up from $3.1 billion in 2006.

Findings of the report include:

- The overall average fraudulent order rate (the percent of accepted orders later found fraudulent) was 1.3% vs. 1.1% in 2006.
- Chargebacks understate fraud loss by as much as 50%
- International order risk 2 ½ times higher than domestic orders
- Manual review rates increased from an average of 23% of orders in 2006 to 27%.
- Efficiency gains (e.g. primarily in manual review) of as much as 20% may be required.