How Bilt Achieved Comprehensive Fraud Prevention and Reduced Chargebacks with SEON

About Bilt

Bilt is the loyalty program for renters that transforms everyday spend into rewards and benefits. The company, founded in 2021, operates a comprehensive ecosystem spanning travel, fitness, and dining, serving customers across rent payments, everyday purchases, and even student loans. With a diverse business model covering everything from credit applications to point redemptions, Bilt required sophisticated fraud prevention that could adapt to multiple use cases and customer touchpoints.

Challenge

Like many financial platforms, as Bilt expanded its offerings, it faced the universal challenge of balancing scalability and user experience while managing new fraud challenges that held the potential to impact operations and partner relationships.

• Lifecycle protection: Traditional fraud tools focused more on “front door” protection at the point of application, with less emphasis on high-risk actions from and after user registration.

• Cost-prohibitive comprehensive coverage: Existing fraud platforms had per-transaction pricing that made it economically challenging to protect all customer interactions, especially for lower-value loyalty program activities.

• Diverse attack vectors: Bilt’s multi-faceted business model created numerous potential entry points for fraud, from travel bookings to rent payments, requiring a flexible and dynamic solution that could adapt to different fraud patterns.

• Emergency response capability: When launching new services, Bilt needed the ability to quickly deploy fraud protection against emerging threats without extensive development resources.

Solution

Bilt selected SEON as its comprehensive fraud prevention platform. SEON’s flexible architecture, cost-effective pricing model and rapid deployment capabilities made it the ideal solution for Bilt’s complex, multi-vertical business model.

Key reasons included:

• Intuitive rule creation: SEON’s no-code interface enabled non-technical users to quickly learn and deploy sophisticated fraud defenses without engineering support.

• Post-approval monitoring: Unlike traditional solutions, SEON provided comprehensive real-time fraud detection throughout the customer lifecycle, dynamically monitoring suspicious activity from account registration through high-risk actions like viewing card details or changing personal information.

• Scalable economics: SEON’s pricing model allowed Bilt to run comprehensive fraud checks across its entire customer base without the cost constraints of other platforms.

• Rapid deployment: The platform’s flexibility enabled Bilt to promptly deploy fraud protection on its travel portal if faced with coordinated attacks.

• Advanced device intelligence: SEON’s device enrichment capabilities proved crucial in detecting sophisticated fraud attempts, including fraudsters using residential proxies and VPNs to mask their locations.

• Custom data integration: The platform’s flexibility enabled Bilt to incorporate custom data points and create sophisticated rules based on its unique business model (spanning loyalty programs, credit cards and merchant services).

“SEON allows you to have broad checks even in low LTV (lifetime value) channels…I’m able to use it in every facet of the business and get value from it.”

Ryan Hunter, Director of Identity & Fraud Strategy, Bilt

Conclusion

Bilt has transformed its fraud prevention approach by partnering with SEON, achieving comprehensive protection across its ecosystem while maintaining operational efficiency. Since implementation, the company has reduced chargebacks, successfully blocked coordinated fraud rings and expanded protection across travel bookings, rent payments, and loyalty program interactions. All implementations were designed to align with Bilt’s stringent data protection, privacy, and regulatory standards.

The partnership has enabled Bilt to maintain strong banking relationships through proactive fraud prevention while scaling protection economically across all customer touchpoints. With SEON’s self-service capabilities, Bilt’s fraud team operates independently without constant technical support, freeing engineering resources for core product development.

As Bilt continues to expand its offerings, SEON supports Bilt’s broader fraud prevention framework, complementing in-house systems and other safeguards integral to the company’s multi-layered fraud defense strategy, enabling confident growth across new verticals and customer segments.

“SEON’s intuitive interface empowers our fraud team to act quickly and independently, optimizing efficiency while maintaining security rigor.”

Ryan Hunter, Director of Identity & Fraud Strategy, Bilt