SMG Swiss Marketplace Group is a pioneering network of online marketplaces and cutting edge digital companies that simplifies people’s lives with innovative products. SMG Swiss Marketplace Group provides its customers with the ideal tools for their life choices. The portfolio includes Real Estate (ImmoScout24, Homegate, Flatfox, Immostreet.ch, alle-immobilien.ch, home.ch, Publimmo, Acheter-Louer.ch, CASASOFT, IAZI), Automotive (AutoScout24, MotoScout24), General Marketplaces (anibis.ch, tutti.ch, Ricardo), and Finance and Insurance (FinanceScout24, moneyland.ch).
Overview
Over a few years, Swiss Marketplace Group transformed trust and safety operations across its entire portfolio – from manual, reactive processes into an automated, risk-based strategy that scales very well.
SMG deals with fraud challenges including fake listings, fraudulent registrations, and account takeovers. In the very early stages, multiple tools were used to collect intelligence, and some work was manual – reviewing logs, applying rules, and correlating signals across multiple systems. The strategy was clear, to automate to be able to scale.
And to scale efficiently and independently from product development, SMG adopted SEON. Today, SEON is a component of SMG’s adaptive, risk-based fraud detection and prevention strategy.
Before SEON
A self-developed tool was used in fraud detection & prevention
Limited user, client, device, and network intelligence
The approach was more reactive than proactive
With SEON
Efficient and effective threat hunting
Centralized data enrichment and intelligence in one platform
900+ real-time data signals including device and network insights
Automated decisioning for routine cases
The Challenge
Before SEON, manual reviews and basic rules were more common, and there was a lack of enriched signals of client, network, etc., as well as device context. Analysts had to:
Search multiple systems for indicators
Correlate fragmented logs
Use multiple tools for client and network intelligence
Rebuild case histories
As per the strategy, SMG needed automation and richer data to be able to scale, and without exploding operational costs.
The Strategy
SMG built a risk-based approach that emphasizes:
Data enrichment: Adding deeper signals such as device and network data
Risk scoring: Moving beyond yes/no decisions into graded risk
Automation: Letting the system make routine decisions and alert only when human review is needed
Sustainable operations: Ensuring analysts spend time on high-impact work, not repetitive tasks
“Efficient security is sustainable security.”
Mostafa Hassanin, Group CISO/CSO
SEON became central to this strategy by enriching event data, generating risk scores to be used in the risk engine and enabling automated decisioning, all while keeping workflows transparent for analysts.
Solution
SMG didn’t replace a single existing tool; SEON augmented multiple solutions and internal techniques. SMG leverages SEON’s Device Intelligence and Digital Footprinting alongside its Risk Scoring Engine to enrich each event with 900+ data signals, enabling automated decisions without manual intervention.
Key benefits included:
Richer enrichment data, including device and network insights
Clear risk scores that enabled nuanced decisioning
Centralized visibility for analysts
API-driven automation to integrate fraud controls into workflows
“Without SEON, analysts would try to replicate what SEON does. It would take very long and still miss some information.”
Mostafa Hassanin
Group CISO/CSO
Scaling with Automation
As SMG’s footprint expanded across brands, automation became essential. SEON’s enriched data and scoring:
Reduces manual reviews
Lets analysts focus on complex investigations
Frees customer care from handling routine fraud cases
Enables consistent fraud evaluation across the portfolio
Automation transformed trust and safety operations from reactive to proactive, stopping suspicious activity early and supporting business growth while being efficient.
Operational Impact
Before SEON, analysts would need to gather intelligence from different tools, some internal or integrated, others external. But with SEON:
Enrichment and scoring are available in one platform
Investigations’ time is significantly less
Less time is spent stitching data together
Less dependency between trust & safety operations and product
Conclusion
What started as a replacement of an in-house tool has evolved into a scalable, risk-based fraud program protecting nearly 20 brands across Swiss Marketplace Group.
By combining data enrichment, risk scoring and automation, SMG now delivers consistent protection across the entire portfolio efficiently while enabling growth.
SEON plays a role in that foundation, not as a standalone fix, but as a core component of a broader security strategy built for sustainability.
For SMG, fraud prevention is not about adding more people or more rules. It’s about trust and making smarter decisions as early as possible. And about giving teams the tools they need to protect customers while the business continues to scale.
“I don’t want my experts doing repetitive work. I want them to make the judgment calls, and I want the AI to give them the information to do that.”
Mostafa Hassanin, Group CISO/CSO
SEON’s leading fraud prevention and AML compliance platform is powered by AWS.
