Are High-Security Checks Worth It?

by Tamas Kadar
The latest technique in fraud prevention is called email risk assessment – but how does it work, and why is it so efficient?
An email address is a lot more than a tool to receive messages these days. It’s veritably the closest thing we have to an online passport.
We use it to register to pretty much every online account, and it’s required at the login and transaction stage too.
In short: email addresses are increasingly considered authentication solutions, in the same way an ID document scan, financial details, or fingerprint biometrics can help prove your identity.
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In the world of fraud detection, the more data you have about your users, the better. This is exactly why you need to focus on every single possible data point you can gather to make informed management decisions.
Here’s how getting more information through email risk assessment can help your business:
The key point here is that the earlier you block fraudsters, the less damage they can cause to your business.
On top of all the above, email address analysis is near-instant. This has tremendous advantages for businesses who want to reduce churn and customer friction as much as possible.
For instance, SEON returns results in a fraction of a second, which means you can then automate your fraud detection mechanisms at scale. Gather all the right email data, feed it into your fraud prevention engine, and immediately approve or block signups from new users with complete peace of mind.
With the right solutions, you’ll be able to do an email lookup and return important information about the user. For instance:
The main problem with using email handles as user authentication is that it’s too easy to acquire them. Fraudsters can use hundreds of online solutions designed to:
This gives fraudsters a lot of control, as they can still receive emails from your business, without attaching any real ID or financial details to the account.
Moreover, it makes it easy to create an address where the name matches the one on the stolen credit card whose details they have acquired. If they come across a stolen card number that belongs to James Berkley, it’s easy enough to create jamesberkley2345@freemail.com and to send emails from there to avoid suspicion.
So how do you ensure the address points towards a real user versus a fraudster?
Enter email risk assessment technology.
Another powerful analytics help comes in the form of social media profiling. Put simply, it checks if the address has been used to register with a number of social networks, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc…
This becomes a terrific feature for what is known as data enrichment. Firstly, an email address that’s never been used on social media networks should increase the risk.
In fact, SEON statistics show that 76% of people who had borrowed money from online loaning companies and had no social media account ended up defaulting on their loans.
But there’s more: If you can find a connection between the email address and social media handles, your fraud management team can then gather information such as a user picture, last login, and posting location.
The good news is that these kinds of analytics are fully legal. Our solution, for instance, is even GDPR compliant, as we only look at open databases to aggregate personal information.
It’s worth noting that not all email profiling tools are created equal in that respect. Always ensure your solution is compliant with local data protection laws to avoid hefty fines.
At SEON, we’ve pioneered an innovative email analysis tool that works in real-time, directly from your Chrome browser. Simply paste the email address and get all the personal info you need about your user.
But of course, you can integrate this powerful email module technology as part of a full end-to-end fraud prevention solution.
Best of all, you can get started today with a free trial to witness first-hand how powerful an email analysis solution can be to help you block fraudsters and grow your business with full peace of mind.
Working with SEON gives you complete user profiles in an instant, helping you to reduce fraud rates.
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Data Enrichment | Browser Fingerprinting | Device Fingerprinting | Fraud Detection API | Fraud Detection with Machine Learning & AI
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Tamás Kádár is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SEON. His mission to create a fraud-free world began after he founded the CEE’s first crypto exchange in 2017 and found it under constant attack. The solution he built now reduces fraud for 5,000+ companies worldwide, including global leaders such as KLM, Avis, and Patreon. In his spare time, he’s devouring data visualizations and injuring himself while doing basic DIY around his London pad.
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