How Buycycle has Leveraged SEON and its Managed Risk Services to Secure High-Value Transactions, Cut False Positives and Scale Globally
Company
Industry
Retail
Use Cases
Identity fraud
Payment fraud
About Buycycle
With operations spanning three continents, Buycycle is a rapidly growing global C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace specializing in high-value bicycle transactions. The innovative team facilitates cross-border sales between private buyers and sellers. With an average order value between €1,000-€2,000, the marketplace has expanded beyond bicycles to include parts and accessories, serving customers across 33 countries and supporting tens of thousands of transactions.
Challenge
As Buycycle scaled globally, several critical fraud vulnerabilities emerged across the user journey:
Multi-touchpoint fraud risks: The platform faced threats at four key stages: sign-up (bot attacks), private messaging (off-platform transaction attempts), listings (contact information hidden in bike images via QR codes) and high-value payments.
High-stakes fraud impact: With AOVs (average order values) between €1,000-€2,000, a single successful fraud attempt was extremely lucrative for criminals, creating a “broken window effect” where one breach could quickly attract more fraudsters.
Global complexity: Operating across 33 countries made pattern matching difficult, as legitimate user behavior varied significantly by region, complicating the distinction between good and bad actors.
Fragmented solutions: Previous in-house solutions and Payment Service Provider (PSP) fraud tools addressed individual touchpoints but lacked a holistic view to track user risk throughout the entire journey (from sign-up to checkout).
Resource constraints: Limited fraud prevention resources meant the platform needed automated solutions rather than manual review processes.
“Prior to SEON, we had our challenges in every domain. We built individual solutions to address specific areas, but we lacked the holistic view to bring it all together.”
Jonas Jaeger, Co-Founder, Buycycle
Solution
Buycycle selected SEON as its comprehensive fraud prevention partner after identifying the solution’s superior device fingerprinting capabilities and holistic approach to risk management. The decision was driven by the need to protect a high-value, cross-border marketplace without compromising user experience or growth potential.
Key reasons included:
Device Intelligence: Analyzes signals across hardware, software, network and behavior – including patterns of interaction and device use over time – to build a real-time risk profile.
Holistic risk assessment: Ability to track and assess user risk throughout the entire customer journey, connecting data points from sign-up through transaction completion, identifying patterns that others miss
Intuitive machine learning engine: A simple yet powerful rule-based system, enabling automated decision-making with minimal manual oversight. Buycycle can tailor strict approval rules that align with their resource-light operations
Dedicated fraud specialist support: Access to expert guidance for hands-on support, rule optimization and false positive reduction
Scalable architecture: Solution that will grow with Buycycle’s international expansion without requiring additional internal resources or headcount
“The simplicity of the product, the simplicity of the machine learning rules engine, plus the support and working with a dedicated fraud specialist – it all made a tremendous difference.”
Jonas Jaeger, Co-Founder, Buycycle
Implementation
Buycycle worked closely with SEON’s fraud specialist to build a prevention framework tailored to its high-value C2C marketplace:
Early intervention strategy: Shifted from reactive fraud detection during messaging/listing phases to proactive identification at sign-up
Comprehensive data integration: Extended SEON’s capabilities beyond initial sign-ups to monitor account modifications and collect additional data points throughout the user journey
Rule optimization: Regularly fine-tuned sensitivity settings in collaboration with SEON, improving detection and reducing false positives
Automated decision-making: Implemented binary approve/decline decisions to streamline operations without manual review requirements
Results
Since implementing SEON, Buycycle has achieved considerable improvements in fraud prevention and operational efficiency:
Reduced false positives: Dramatically decreased false positive rate in under three months through dedicated fraud specialist collaboration
Early threat detection: Successfully identified and blocked bad actors at sign-up rather than downstream in the user journey
Downstream fraud reduction: Significantly reduced off-platform messaging attempts and fraudulent transactions thanks to early intervention.
Operational efficiency: Eliminated the need for manual review processes, saving time and reducing internal operational costs while maintaining security standards
Scalable growth enablement: Maintained trust and safety standards while expanding globally across 33 countries, enabling Buycycle to support tens of thousands of secure, high-value transactions without increasing fraud team headcount
“We know at sign-up if it’s going to be a good user or bad user. It makes it much, much easier if you stop it at the very first contact point.”
Jonas Jaeger, Co-Founder, Buycycle
Conclusion
By partnering with SEON, Buycycle has transformed its fraud prevention strategy, supporting its mission of enabling safe, high-value transactions between consumers at a global scale. SEON provides the visibility, automation and expert support needed to build trust and grow with confidence.
“Trust and safety are core fundamentals on which we’ve built our entire platform. Without a solution like SEON, we wouldn’t have been able to scale the way we did or satisfy our users to the degree needed to enable our growth.”
