12 Best Fraud Detection Software and Tools in 2023

The fraud management industry is set to grow to USD 38.2 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.8%, highlighting the need for companies to increase spending on fighting online fraud.

Your fraud detection software needs to be able to combine user fingerprinting, powerful data analysis and real-time risk scoring to protect your business and its customers.

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What Is Fraud Detection Software?

Fraud detection software is designed to automatically stop online fraud. The software analyses online user actions and, based on your risk rules, blocks those that are deemed high risk.

A high-risk user action can be a payment, signup, or login, among others. The fraud detection software must be setup to analyse user or payment data, analyse that data via risk rules, and decide if it is risky or not.

Fraud detection software is often deployed to prevent payment fraud and chargebacks, identity fraud, and account takeover fraud, and a key advantage is that it can run automatically with little to no human oversight.

Top 12 Fraud Detection Software Companies

Disclaimer: Everything you’ll read in this article was gleaned from online research, including user reviews. We did not have time to manually test every tool. This article was last updated in Q3 2023. Please feel free to contact us to request an update/correction.

SEON

Granular, Flexible, and Transparent

SEON prides itself on being accurate, granular, and fully customizable to suit the needs of any company.

When it comes to tools and technology, SEON’s features include in-depth device fingerprinting to develop comprehensive user profiles, complete data enrichment based on an email address, IP address, or phone number, and a way to check 90+ social and digital profiles to help reveal your customers’ true intentions.

SEON is one of the rare fraud detection tools to offer transparent pricing and a free trial. Existing clients include Revolut, Albo, Kindred Group and Nubank.

Pros

Device fingerprinting
Whitebox machine learning
Custom risk rules
AML monitoring
Digital profiling
Free license available

Cons

No on-site integration
No identity document verification (IDV) checks

SEON Pricing

Starts at $599. Free version available with no API integration.

SEON Main Industries

Gambling & Casinos
Financial Services
Payment Service Providers

The integration of SEON into your existing security stack comes with hands-on assistance from our fraud experts, both to facilitate the software integration itself and to recommend how to tune your risk rules to specific pain points.

These risk rules are fully customizable, giving your organization the ability to satisfy your specific risk appetite. That being said, the SEON platform comes pre-loaded with risk rules generated by our fraud experts to address pain points common to different verticals. Meanwhile, the blackbox and whitebox machine learning solutions analyze your data to suggest additional rules based on fraud insights generated from deep inside customer data.

Pros of SEON

Device fingerprinting: Device IDs are increasingly – and more consistently – used to develop user ID confidence in the flow of international digital business. SEON’s device and browser hashing provide a way to detect fraud without friction.
Whitebox machine learning: Get rule suggestions in human-readable language so you can test and tweak them yourself.
Reverse social media lookup: Gather data from 90+ online signals, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram, and more, to get a 360-degree view of your users.
AML lookups: SEON’s AML solution has all the tools needed to help risk management teams stay on the right side of AML compliance.
SEON Free: Small and medium businesses (SMBs) can utilize the power of SEON for free, with unlimited users and rules and up to 2,000 API calls per month.

Cons of SEON

No onsite integration: Enterprise clients might need to look elsewhere if they need to control the integration with their onsite tech stack.
No IDV checks: SEON does not have the functionality to analyze submitted ID cards and bills, so businesses that require those solutions should consider a multi-layered approach with a comprehensive software stack.

Sift

One of the Fastest Growing Anti-Risk Vendors

Launched in 2011, Sift is now a $1 billion company, funded in part by startup accelerator Y Combinator. It offers fraud protection for a whopping 34,000 sites and apps, including world-renowned names such as Airbnb and McDonald’s.

Its key products include a Digital Trust and Safety Suite, which combines all the individual API tools into one complete solution. Then, there is a module specifically designed to authenticate users and avoid account takeover (ATO) attacks, which includes the ability to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) at the same time.

Pros

Strong enterprise focus
Chargeback resolution module
Content security add-on

Cons

Blackbox artificial intelligence (AI)
No real-time social media checks
No AML capabilities

Sift Pricing

Available upon request to the sales team.

Sift Main Industries

Financial Services
Retail
iGaming

Pros of Sift

Strong enterprise focus: While targeting the biggest companies, Sift offers plenty of products and tools for sufficient customization for fraud fighting.
Chargeback resolution module: A great way to accept a certain percentage of chargebacks without increasing false positives while also having enough resources to fight fraudulent cases.
Content security add-on: Sift doesn’t specifically do anti-fraud; there is also an overlap with cybersecurity. The Content Integrity product, for instance, blocks spam, scams, and malicious content on your site. Sift also offers a passwordless authentication app to streamline customer experiences and boost security hygiene.

Cons of Sift

Blackbox AI: What you gain in ease of use, you lose in terms of understanding why the AI suggests certain risk rules.
No real-time social media checks: An important piece of the puzzle when it comes to ID proofing, reverse social lookup isn’t available with Sift.
No AML capabilities: Though it offers a digital assistant for PSD2 compliance, Sift does not currently have any ability to help maintain AML compliance through watchlist screening.

ComplyAdvantage

API-Based KYC and AML

Banking fraud detection and compliance overlap, which is why one of ComplyAdvantage’s founders, Charles Delingpole, joined SEON’s Series A round. Where ComplyAdvantage really shines is in its ability to focus on AML while reducing fraud rates relating to money laundering.

ComplyAdvantage includes transaction monitoring, customer screening using sanction lists and PEP lists, and even checks based on the Financial Action Task Force to monitor adverse media.

Pros

API integration
Free version

Cons

No data enrichment

ComplyAdvantage Pricing

It starts with a completely free version called ComplyLaunch, but more robust checks need to come from their other (paid) solutions. Pricing is available upon request.

ComplyAdvantage Main Industries

Financial Services

ComplyAdvantage Pros

API integration: Integrate the tool via API, whether you need AML protection or customer screening.
Free version: If you’re a startup, you’ll be happy to hear that you can deploy the company’s ComplyLaunch product (with limited features) for free.

ComplyAdvantage Cons

No data enrichment: ComplyAdvantage focuses on compliance rather than fraud detection, so you’re less likely to find features like digital footprint analysis and data enrichment.

ThreatMetrix

Protection, Seamlessness, Personalization

Acquired in 2018 by the multinational analytics company LexisNexis Risk Solutions, ThreatMetrix is quickly becoming a fraud prevention leader for financial services, insurance, pension companies, and nonprofits.

LexisNexis currently helps more than 78% of Fortune 500 companies and plenty of others, in 170+ countries.

Pros

Large IP database
Graph visualization
On-premise deployment

Cons

Opaque pricing
Data enrichment as extra

ThreatMetrix Pricing

Available upon request.

ThreatMetrix Main Industries

Financial Services
Insurance

ThreatMetrix Pros

Large IP database: ThreatMetrix has one of the largest databases of blacklisted IP addresses.
Graph visualization: Risk managers can explore connections between account holders’ details with a data visualization tool.
On-premise deployment: Financial institutions that need to keep their tools locally can integrate ThreatMetrix on-premise.

ThreatMetrix Cons

Opaque pricing: As is often the case in the world of banking fraud prevention software, you’ll have to jump through sales demo hoops before you can get a quote.
Data enrichment as extra: You’ll need to purchase extra LexisNexis products, such as Emailage, to aggregate external user data.

Kount

Enterprise-Grade Fraud Detection

Founded by Brad Wiskirchen after he wrote his idea “on the back of a napkin during a sushi lunch,” Kount soon grew into a fraud detection behemoth with 15,000 clients worldwide. Equifax acquired it in early 2021.

To assist with compliance, Kount has incorporated a global watchlist screening module and, in case of high-risk customers and transactions, a tool to simplify mandated regulatory reporting processes.

Kount’s broad focus on retail ecommerce means that service providers and merchants of all kinds, from streaming services to dating apps, can protect their bottom lines from fraud and misappropriated chargebacks.

Pros

Covers many industries
Automated and customizable rules

Cons

Limited machine learning capabilities
Lack of data enrichment

Kount Pricing:

Available after sales call

Kount Main Industries

Retail
Gambling & Casinos

Pros of Kount

Covers many industries: The variety of products available on offer means you can use Kount for a regulated industries or a tier 1 ecommerce brand.
Automated and customizable rules: Tailor rules to automate chargeback prevention or reduce manual review time, among others.

Cons of Kount

Limited ML capabilities: Despite custom rule creation capabilities, the machine learning features are not up to par with some newer solutions on the market, according to reviews.
Lack of data enrichment: Your fraud prevention accuracy is as good as the data you have access to. Unfortunately, with limited data points, your fraud-fighting gets harder.

Signifyd

Automated Fraud Fighting for Merchants

You’ll be in capable hands with the Signifyd team. After leaving PayPal, two engineers turned their expertise to fraud software development, with a specific focus on enterprise ecommerce clients.

Signifyd now protects 10,000 online stores globally, helping them prevent chargebacks via three key products: Revenue Protection, Abuse Protection, and Payments Optimization.

Its products are specifically geared toward high volumes of transactions, and it even automates chargeback protection via a chargeback-guarantee model, where it assumes payment for chargeback admin fees.

Pros

Automated chargeback prevention
PSD2 compliant

Cons

No real-time data
Conflict of interest

Signifyd Pricing

Signifyd focuses on enterprise clients with bespoke contracts. You’ll need to speak to a sales team to get an idea of pricing.

Signifyd Main Industries

Retail
Apparel & Fashion

Pros of Signifyd

Automated chargeback prevention: It’s not quite plug-and-play, but Signifyd is designed to run on autopilot with minimum user input.
Covers other ecommerce fraud challenges: Return abuse and friendly fraud, among others.
PSD2 compliant: The Payments Optimization module works with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), which helps with compliance for EU-based payments.

Cons of Signifyd

No real-time data: Relying on databases can work. But you’re missing a piece of the puzzle because fraudsters move fast.
Conflict of interest: A chargeback guarantee model can be great for small merchants, but this level of automation might not be suitable for SMBs that want to keep false positives to an absolute minimum and don’t make good use of full automation.

Emailage

Reverse Email Lookup Specialists

An email address is a powerful data point if you know how to get the most info from it. That’s exactly what LexisNexis’s Emailage specializes in, so you can get a customer profile with an associated risk score based on an email address only.

Though Emailage doesn’t list its high-profile customers specifically, as part of the LexisNexis stack, it is a large part of one of the larger – and more expensive – end-to-end software stacks available today.

Pros

Real-time alerts
Easy with LexisNexis

Cons

Not enough real-time data
No device fingerprinting

Emailage Pricing

Available after contacting the sales team.

Emailage Main Industries

Financial Services
Cryptocurrency
Gambling & Casinos

Pros of Emailage

Real-time alerts: As far as email data enrichment goes, you get instant results.
Part of the LexisNexis Risk Network: If you buy more of the suite of products, you should get seamless integration.

Cons of Emailage

Not enough real-time intelligence: Emailage relies on email data enrichment only. Sophisticated fraudsters can still slip through the cracks.
No device fingerprinting: As the Emailage product functions exclusively on email data enrichment, it lacks the ability to spot multi-accounting abusers without additional programs in your security stack.
Integrates best with other LexisNexis products: Anti-fraud software in the LexisNexis stack is designed to integrate easily with other products in that proprietary stack, such as the Digital Identity Network, Firco Global Watchlist, and LexisNexis Decision Trust, but not so much with third-party vendors.

ArkOwl

Live Data Enrichment from Several Sources

Founded in 2012, ArkOwl was developed by GitLab engineer Mike Greiling along with Rob Daline, before joining NICE Actimze’s platform-as-a-service in 2019.

ArkOwl’s key selling point? Its ability to pull email data from fresh databases such as social networking sites, WHOIS databases, webmail hosts, service providers, and more. Though its main focus is email data enrichment, it can also scrutinize and enrich data from phone numbers or IP addresses – for instance, when looking at domain information. Currently, it also scans several social media sites in order to deliver assessable user profiles.

Pros

Real-time live social media
Designed for integration
Flexible pricing structure

Cons

Not for all fraud challenges
Less comprehensive social media checks

ArkOwl Pricing

ArkOwl offers flexible pricing plans, with a free trial after registration.

ArkOwl Main Industries

Financial Services

Pros of ArkOwl

Real-time live social media: The system checks several social media websites for fresh user data.
Designed for integration: Companies requiring more comprehensive data enrichment will find ArkOwl a good addition to an existing security software stack.
Flexible pricing structure: You can choose to pay via a monthly subscription, prepaid bundles, or pay-as-you-go (API calls).

Cons of ArkOwl

Not suitable for all fraud challenges: Data enrichment is great as an add-on for a multi-layered approach – not so much for fully-fledged anti-fraud software.
Less comprehensive social media checks: Currently ArkOwl scans “several” social media services to develop user profiles, which is valuable but less comprehensive for risk assessment, particularly in emerging economies.

Ekata

Part of the Mastercard Group

This is a mature and well-established fraud detection software. Founded in 1997 (originally under the name Whitepages), Ekata offers global identity verification and fraud prevention. Acquired by Mastercard in 2021, Ekata has first-hand experience with enterprise clients such as Lyft, Equifax, and Microsoft.

The anti-fraud platform consists of five main products: Transaction Risk, Phone Intelligence, Account Opening, Address Risk APIs, and the Pro Insight tool to manage those functions and execute manual fraud investigations.

Pros

Expansive databases
Graph visualization
Brand recognition

Cons

US-centric
Specific software stacks

Ekata Pricing

Enterprise-level contracts at an undisclosed price on the website. Speak to its sales team for more info.

Ekata Main Industries

Retail
Financial Services

Pros of Ekata

Expansive Databases: Ekata’s Identity Engine assesses risk with machine learning solutions based on the data from the expansive Mastercard umbrella.
Graph visualization: Sold as the separate Ekata Identity Graph product.
Brand recognition: If it’s good enough for Microsoft, you should be able to trust it.

Cons of Ekata

US-centric: While Ekata’s data on emerging markets is increasing, it still lacks a truly global database. Data enrichment based on social media could help, but the company still relies mostly on email addresses, IPs, or phone data.
Optimized for specific software stacks: Ekata’s network of partner fraud solutions offers easy integration, but only if you are an existing customer of some specific services, most of which are suitable for specific industry use cases – but may not be suitable for all.

TruValidate

(formerly Iovation)

Don’t let the multiple name changes confuse you: TruValidate is now an offering from within the massive TransUnion catalog of digital solutions but was formerly Iovation, and has been operating since 2004.

TruValidate’s key products are Digital Insights, Identity Insights, Fraud Analytics, and Omnichannel Authentication. Together, the products develop low-friction identity confidence through device and IP intelligence, detect synthetic identity fraud, and authenticate inbound traffic from across distribution channels.

Pros

Native device fingerprinting
TransUnion ecosystem

Cons

Stale data
No real-time data enrichment
No free/batch trial

TruValidate Pricing

Available upon request.

TruValidate Main Industries

Financial Services
Insurance
Gambling & Casinos

Pros of TruValidate

Native device fingerprinting: To check the configurations of software and hardware that users rely on to connect to your website.
Part of the TransUnion ecosystem: While all the products are sold separately, you can expect seamless integration between all TransUnion’s services.

Cons of TruValidate

Stale data: A massive database is useful, but sometimes having fresher data is better, even if you have less.
No real-time data enrichment: You’re relying on an extremely large database but not on open source info such as social media data.
No free/batch trial: Prepare for a lengthy onboarding via multiple sales calls before you can test TruValidate.

FraudHunt

Affordable Security for Emerging Markets

FraudHunt was founded with the goal of providing emerging markets with a lightweight and affordable fraud prevention option. To achieve this, the founding team of data analysts and developers took proven methods, focusing on device fingerprinting, and developed a platform that provides a dynamic security solution for ecommerce marketplaces of all sizes and verticals. Notable customers include Crediexpress and DataBrain.

FraudHunt’s risk prevention solution revolves around scoring incoming traffic based on risk points in device and browser fingerprints. Each user gets assigned a score based on whether or not they flip certain triggers, such as proxy detection and identifying data from operating systems, browser information, and their behavioral patterns inside the marketplace.

Pros

Competitive pricing
Fingerprint ID module
Accessibility

Cons

Limited native analytics
Not for scaled businesses

FraudHunt Pricing

FraudHunt offers a range of pricing structures, starting at as little as $25 per month for the Bronze package and rising to $2,500 per month for up to ten million unique users.

FraudHunt Main Industries

Retail

Pros of FraudHunt

Competitive pricing: As the company focuses heavily on emerging markets, both the integration process and monthly premiums are relatively low. The company also offers specialized packets for extenuating financial circumstances.
Fingerprint ID module: FraudHunt’s flagship product leans heavily into bot detection to prevent ATOs, credential stuffing attacks, affiliate scams, and content fraud.
Accessibility: The main software offers Google Analytics integration capabilities and an intuitive reporting tool.

Cons of FraudHunt

Limited native analytics: FraudHunt offers a streamlined Google Analytics integration to break down its Fingerprint Key user profile data to determine things like suspiciously repeated device hashes. While this may be convenient for some, many products provide such insights within their platforms to smoothen automated processes.
Not optimal for scaled businesses: In FraudHunt’s effort to be an affordable fraud solution for emerging markets, its product offers less automation than an enterprise-level business would require and less advanced lookups for AML/PSD2 compliance. Even medium-sized companies will likely need another product to complement their security.

Accertify

Dynamic Automation to Suit Your Preferences

The American Express company’s fraud prevention solution is Accertify. The company touts itself as a true end-to-end fraud solution provider, from customer authentication to SCA optimization, even providing chargeback management for those inevitable occurrences.

Accertify’s main fraud detection offering is called Accertify Digital Identity. To develop insights, the machine learning algorithms reference databases of community user behavior analytics and device intelligence to decide how to label each user. This is coupled with chargeback and reputational data from across the massive network of ecommerce partners – which also inform Accertify’s day-one strategies so that results can be seen as soon after integration as possible.

Pros

Dynamic automation
Huge databases
End-to-end capability

Cons

No social media enrichment
Enterprise-level focus

Accertify Pricing

You have to contact the sales team for a quote and demo.

Accertify Main Industries

Retail,
Travel
Gambling & Casinos

Pros of Accertify

Dynamic automation: Accertify’s automated scoring system can be adjusted to include more or fewer manual reviews, depending on the customer’s risk appetite.
Huge databases: As an Amex subsidiary, Accertify draws data points like IP reputation data from a huge network of legacy ecommerce providers.
End-to-end capability: Accertify’s main offering includes modules like chargeback management and an entire international payment gateway, with additional compliance modules available, so interested companies can potentially ingest the entire infrastructure.

Cons of Accertify

No social media enrichment: As the company is supremely confident (understandably) in the scope of its databases, it does not look into alternative or real-time data, such as digital footprints. This can lead to less conclusive reports.
Enterprise-level focus: Smaller businesses will find the price point high, as the vendor is focused on legacy companies.

Top Features of Fraud Detection Software

Fraud detection software comes in many shapes and sizes depending on your risk challenge. However, the key features tend to remain the same. They include:

Risk rules: They allow you to filter user actions based on the data you find. A basic risk rule would be: If the IP address belongs to a VPN, block the login attempt.
Risk scoring: Some rules can be static but others let you play with scores and thresholds. For example: If a customer is not based in the same country as their payment card, add 5 points to their risk score.
Real-time monitoring: For ID verification and account protection, for instance, you must also be able to block a suspicious action immediately, before it’s too late.
Machine learning engine: The best fraud prevention software will include a machine learning (ML) algorithm to suggest risk rules based on your historical business data.

Features for Fraud Detection Tools in Banking

Banking fraud detection software comes in many shapes and sizes, but some features are recurring, such as:

Digital footprint analysis: A feature that leverages digital data to answer the question: “Am I dealing with a real person, and are they who they say they are?”
KYC checks: Customer ID verification is a huge part of KYC checks. Good banking fraud detection software should help with that.
Real-time monitoring and alerts: Understanding how fraud happens at your bank is one thing. Setting up real-time monitoring and notifications is the next step.
Machine learning suggestions: Fraudsters are adaptive. You must ensure your fraud detection software can also adapt to new attack vectors. This is where machine learning (ML) can help suggest new risk rules tailored to your risk challenges.

Choosing the Right Fraud Detection System

As fraud continues to hurt companies’ bottom line, the fraud detection software market continues to grow. This can make it challenging to choose the right solution for your risk challenges.

This is why it’s important to consider the following crucial points:

Detection features: Check that the software offers the right features based on your needs, whether it’s identity fraud, payment fraud, or account protection.

Integration flexibility: While most fraud detection software is available as a SaaS model, you might also want to consider on-site integration.

Payment model: Beware of long contracts that lock you into the wrong price plan. Make sure you can trial the software first, or at least have a short term paid option to test it.

Support and documentation: Ensure your vendor offers free support and customer service, especially at the time of integration. The documentation should also be good enough to answer your questions without having to go through support.

We hope this comparison will provide a good primer on the topic and that you’ll soon get started on the road to a safer, healthier online business.

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Different Types of Banking Fraud Detection Software

Banking fraud detection software comes in many shapes and forms. Here are the key types you should consider before deploying yours:

In-house vs outsourced: Is it worth keeping the software on-premise? Or should you outsource it to a third-party, cloud-based vendor?
Mature provider vs startup: The strategic maturity of a provider is worth considering depending on various factors such as ease of integration with modern platforms, ability to prove return on investment (ROI) based on historical results, length and price of the contract, and so on.
Static vs customizable transaction monitoring: While it’s important to monitor transactions, it should also be adjustable based on the institution’s risk appetite. This is only possible with fully customizable settings.
Whitebox vs blackbox machine learning: Machine learning is an increasingly popular solution for discovering banking risk. However, not all algorithms are transparent about how they spot patterns. While some banking clients will prefer blackbox models that just work without tweaks, others will favor the extra control of a whitebox system – which should come with human-readable rules and explanations.
Heavy friction vs lightweight user experience: A particular challenge for neobanks, which stake their reputation on offering an easy and intuitive user experience. How do you reduce risk without adding too many obstacles for your customers?

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I consider when purchasing fraud detection software?

The more you know about your organization’s fraud issues, infrastructure, and risk appetites, the easier it will be to choose the best software solution. After ascertaining these points, consider features like customizable risk rules, device fingerprinting, alternative data scoring, real-time data assessment, and convenient machine learning systems.

Who needs fraud detection tools?

Today, all businesses are at risk from fraud, no matter their sector. In fact, the current fraud landscape demonstrates that those companies and decision-makers who think they couldn’t be affected are more likely to be targeted – exactly because they are less likely to invest in their defenses.

How to make the case to invest in banking fraud detection software

Investing in banking fraud detection software isn’t just a competitive advantage for financial institutions, neobanks, and challenger banks; it’s a legal requirement with regard to KYC, AML, and PSD2, among others. However, deploying the right tool can also help onboard more users with peace of mind, which can have a direct impact on growth and profitability.

What are the most common types of fraud in banking?

The greatest risk for banks, neobanks, and financial institutions is onboarding users who are not who they say they are. Fraudsters use stolen IDs and synthetic IDs to create accounts. This creates compliance issues (KYC and AML), which can have dramatic consequences in the long run. You can find out more about the types of bank account fraud here.